Nissan to shift small car facility to India

Further, the company said, it is in the final stages of developing a global strategic small-car platform from which the first product to roll out would be India-made Micra hatchback in June next year.
The new Nissan Micra is expected to be rolled out by March 2010. According to auto industry obervers the shifting of production of Micra to India was mainly due to better cost efficiencies and the presence of a high-quality vendor base which would ultimately allow Nissan to rationalise Micra’s prices.

Briefing reporters, Nissan Motor India Managing Director & CEO Kiminobu Tokuyama said “we have decided to shut the UK manufacturing plant for Micra and shift production of this car to India. From June next year, all Micra supplies to Europe would be done from Chennai. The first India-made Nissan car will roll out of the V platform on which the Micra is produced. We will launch the car by the end of June 2010. The idea is to produce a hatchback version, followed by a sedan in 2011 and a third model which is right now at the planning stage. We will produce two more models in India. The company is now studying which could be suitable for the Indian market though the goal is to have a mid-range product in India.” Asked about, Renault India’s plans, a senior representative of Nissan India said that although its sister company has frozen its product plans, it may consider made-in-India products by using Nissan’s small car platform, adding though the manufacturing JV is a 50:50 partnership, the Rs 4,500 crore investment may not be split in the same ratio.