Nissan decision to produce next gen Micra in Europe will not impact Chennai plant

Japanese automajor Nissan today said that its global decision – the replacement for the current Nissan Micra compact car which will be manufactured at a Renault plant in Europe – will not have an impact at Chennai plant.

Trevor Mann, Executive Vice President and Chairman of the Management Committee, Africa, Middle East, India and Europe of Nissan in a statement said “we can confirm that the Renault-Nissan Alliance plant in Chennai (RNAIPL) will continue to produce both the current Micra model, and the next Micra from 2016 in Right Hand Drive (RHD) form and also Left Hand Drive (LHD) for some markets”.

Additionally, consistent with Nissan’s plans to introduce 10 new models in India during its mid- term business plan period, and plans beyond that, Chennai will continue ramping up to run at full production capacity as previously stated.

“There is therefore no impact on Nissan’s current and future India,” said in the statement.

Earlier in the day, Nissan Motor announced that the replacement for the current Nissan Micra compact car will be manufactured at Renault's plant in Europe starting from 2016. The vehicle will be exported across Europe’s left-hand drive markets.

Under the Nissan Power 88 six-year business plan, the company will launch, on average, one new model every six weeks for the duration of the plan.

Driven by sales and share expansion across Europe and Russia, Nissan’s manufacturing capacity in Europe and India (the current source for the Micra) will be fully utilised in the mid-term period,it was further said.

The decision to propose the vehicle to Renault to build at one of its European plants benefits Nissan in several ways including capital expense reduction, foreign exchange exposure reduction and working capital reduction through shorter supply chains.

Commenting on the decision to propose consignment of the vehicle to a Renault plant, Trevor Mann, Chairman of the Management Committee, Nissan Europe said “Nissan is pleased to leverage the economic and logistical benefits of sourcing the next generation Micra at a forecasted annual volume of 82,000 units from a Renault plant in Europe. Nissan already sources powertrain from the Cleon facility and the NV400 light commercial vehicle from the Batilly plant.”

The Nissan Micra, also sold under the March name in certain markets, is one of the company’s most recognised products. As a global vehicle, the next generation of Micra will also continue to be manufactured outside of Europe, consistent with Nissan’s optimized global sourcing strategy, said in the statement.