Nissan Motor has said it would replace the Micra with a new product in India by 2016. The company said the replacement will be the first product out of its ‘Common Module Family’ (CMFA) platform announced for India by Nissan-Renault Alliance global chief Carlson Ghosn last year.
In an interactive session with select mediapersons here on Friday, Andy Palmer, chief planning officer and executive vice-president, Nissan Motor Corporation, said, “We are working on new product/s to replace our popular Micra in India by 2016. The new product will not only serve the domestic market but also the neighbouring countries as has been done by the existing Micra. However, for European and other major markets, Nissan will bring out a next generation Micra out of its France manufacturing plant and will not produce the same due to its cost factor.”
“Both the companies (alliance partners) will use the common platform to bring out new products to their choice in India. In fact, Renault is also working on our CMFA platform to bring out a new product next year in India. The products will be different and the marketing strategies will be different between both the companies.”
To another question on Nissan India’s poor sales, Palmer said: “The sales were not on our expected lines due to slow pick- up, distribution problems and other reasons. However, after the Datsun Go launch in March this year and taking over the distribution/dealer networks set up on our own during the same time, we could see things improving fast. In fact, we could see a turnaround in our sales growth and posted 166% growth in Q1 of this fiscal.”
“With a few more products in pipeline, including the replacement of Micra next year and with dealer expansion to 300 from 128 now, we hope by 2016 the Chennai plant capacity of 480,000 units per annum would be fully utilised. As said earlier we would attain 10% market share in the next few years,” Palmer added.
