The company is developing an all-new small car platform known as A platform, which will be used to make atleast three different models, one of them being the Micra.
These small cars will roll out from the Chennai plant by 2010.
French car maker Renault, which also has a tie-up with Mahindra & Mahindra for the Logan project and Nissan has committed a joint investment in excess of Rs 4,000 crore in building a manufacturing facility in Chennai, which will produce about 400,000 car annually. M&M was the third partner in the JV before it decided to pull-out project last year.
The A platform set of cars will be sold in five countries categorised by Nissan as the leading competitive countries (LCC), including India and Thailand, a statement from the company read today.
All models will be capitalised on cost competitiveness, thanks to high levels of localisation through easy sourcing of components. The company is not present in the low cost car category and believes that there will be a lot of room for improvement.
Nissan is expecting sales of more than 200,000 units from India by 2012. The target will be basically achieved through its alliance with Bajaj, for a small car, through a commercial vehicle joint venture with Ashok Leyland, through alliance with Renault for passenger vehicles and also through an alliance with Hover for sales, marketing and dealer development support.
