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Nissan expects to sell 40,000 Micras this year

Nissan India has ramped up its production capacity of ‘Micra’ at its Chennai plant and expects to sell 40,000 Micras in the domestic market in 2011 against 6,500 units sold in 2010.

Nissan India has ramped up its production capacity of ‘Micra’ at its Chennai plant and expects to sell 40,000 Micras in the domestic market in 2011 against 6,500 units sold in 2010.

The company will be roll out its second made-in-India car?a sedan in ‘C’ segment?by the end of the year will soon go for third shift. Apart from this, the company along with its JV partner Renault, will set up a second production line by early 2012 as per the future growth plans, said Gilles Normand, Corporate vice-president (Africa, Middle East, India), Nissan Motor.

Out of the committed R4,500 crore investment, both the partners together have invested R2,800 crore as of now and will invest the remaining well ahead of original schedule of 2015, he added.

In an interactive session with mediaperson, Norman said: “As part of our strategy, Nissan wanted to focus more on exports in the first three years of its operations and then rebalancing it to 50:50 (exports vs domestic). As of now more than 85% of sales come from exports (mostly Micras).

Having expanded dealer network and understood the Indian market and competition, Nissan was now in a position to re-balance its focus on the domestic market, he said.

?We will ramp up our sales in the domestic market to 40,000 units in the current year and then to 100,000 units in 2013.” Exports continue to be our thrust area and Indian plant will be in our gobal export map,? he added.

“As part of our strategy, Nissan will be launching a new sedan from our global platform to take on Toyata Eitos and other ?C? segment cars. The new sedan will be launched before year-end and will be priced competitively.

“It will be entirely a new sedan and will not be the extension of Micra,” he said adding more products will be introduced under the new ‘V’ platform. The localisation level will be similar to that of Micra’s level – at 85% for the new sedan , he added.

To meet the domestic demand as well exports coupled with the proposed new sedan launch, Nissan has decided to go for third shift in the near future. With the joint venture partner Renault also decided to have five cars by end 2012, the partners have decided to go for second production line and will set up by early 2012, Norman maintained.

To a specific question, he said: “Though we are partners in the JV, but both will maintain individual identity, design, brand equity, products, marketing exercise, dealers network. Though we have pragmatically decided to roll out products as per our original plans, but going forward we may compete each other in one or many segments.” The facility is most flexible and can produce cars according to plans of both the partners, he pointed out.

According to him, “The Indian market is shifting towards diesel cars slowly and we could see the demand for diesel cars going up slowly. Given the rising input costs, increasing interest rates, diese engines will become a preferred one in India and Nissan is gearing up to localise the diesel engine to maximum possible level to be cost competitive in India.”

Hinting at the possibility of introducing a luxury car on the lines of BMW, Audi, Mercedes in India, Norman said: “We have luxury cars under our Infiniti brand. A few officials have made visit to India to assess the market conditions. Currently, the import duty is high in India. It should make business sense for us to launch the same in CBU model.”

On the electric car, he said: “We have successfully launched Nissan Leaf. But India is not the market for same at this point of view. The governments – both central and states – should come out with incentives to promote green concept, including introducing such cars in the market. There are lot of regulations, tax breaks need to be addressed.

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First published on: 19-06-2011 at 03:45 IST
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