Japanese auto major Nissan is in the process of revamping its Multi-purpose Utility Vehicle (MPV) Evalia, said a senior executive from Nissan Motor India Ltd.
Speaking to reporters during launch of its new Micra and a cimparatively lower cost Micra Active, Kenichiro Yomura, President & CEO, Nissan Motor India said, "We are working on it (revamping Evalia model)." While he did not reveal the sales of the model, he said that it was lower than expected.
The company launched the product in India in September, last year, according to reports, to cater the growing MPV market. However, the sales did not pick up as expected, said company sources.
One of the observations on the model was that the designing of the rear seats does not suit the the comfort of the high profile customers who sits in the back seat while the chauffer drives the vehicle, said sources.
"We are reworking on it. The market for MPV is growing and we want to launch it as early as possible," said Chikuya Takada, general manager, Product Planning. The company would be looking at bringing in changes in the product as per to feedback from the market.
The company is expecting its sales of the new Micra series to go up to around 30,000 units in the country. "We are expecting sales of around 2,500 units of Micra series every month," said Yomura. Nissan has sold around 43,000 units of Micra from the time of its launch in India in July 2010. It also exports the model to around 100 countries from India, said the company officials.
It has plans to capture a 10 per cent market share in India by FY16 (ending March 2017) and to expand the network from 95 in March, 2013, to 300 dealers in FY 16, added Yomura.
The new Micra is priced at starting from Rs 4.79 lakh and Micra Active starting from Rs 3.49 lakh, ex-showroom Chennai.