Nissan plans to launch their next generation small car model Nissan March in 2010, in India. The Nissan March would mark Nissan’s entry into the automatic passenger car market.
Shouhei Kimura, Nissan Motor India managing director said: “It will be launched in the ‘A´ segment category in India and will have 80% of localization.”
At this point, there is no information on the number of cars to be produced for India, or on the price of the Nissan March when it is launched here. As an A-segment car, the March would be competing against the Hyundai Santo, Chevrolet Spark, the Hyundai i10 etc in India.
This might be a good car alright in the A-segment – but somehow those faux-Beetle looks are not very convincing. The front treatment is European – shoddy European, in my opinion. The rest is tolerable. But like Renault did with the Logan, changing the front grill design of the Nissan March to suit Indian tastes would not be too difficult.
The Nissan March will be manufactured at Nissan’s plant in Oragadam. The Nissan March is one of the nine cars that Nissan plans to launch in the Indian market – the company already sells the Nissan X-Trail SUV in India. Renault Nissan will invest Rs.40 billion ($833 million) in the plant, that would have a capacity to manufacture 4,00,000 cars every year for local and overseas markets.
Kimura also said that the Nissan March would be included in the 110,000 units that would be exported by the second half of 2010, following the signing of an MOU with Ennore Port Ltd.
Nissan plans to scale up the number of units for export to 1,80,000, over the next few years.
Most of the exports of the passenger vehicles and LVCs would be aimed at the European markets.
Photo: Nissan March interior
The Nissan March will be built on Nissan’s new platform.
Kimura was quoted as saying, that since Ennore Port Ltd sanctioned 1,40,000 sq.m of land for exports, the Nissan March would be exported from the Oragadam plant.
The development of a ‘A’ platform is part of intiatives taken for Nissan GT 2012, Nissan’s new five year business plan.
The Nissan March would be launched from Nissan’s Thailand plant first, and then from India. Nissan has said that in its global manufacturing network, India is one of the five leading competitive countries to produce and export the Nissan March.
Nissan March interior
Nissan has not revealed how many units of Nissan March would be manufactured in India.
Ennore Port will invest Rs 110 crore to create a multi-cargo berth facility for Nissan. Ennore Port and Chennai Port Trust will together handle around 5,00,000 cars by 2011.
The Chennai Port Trust and Ennore Port are working to build infrastructure to match expansion plans of car manufacturers.
The 2010 Nissan March, that is in the design stage, is expected to have a more aggressive or sporty feel to attract male buyers.
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