The Micra has been one of Nissan's most successful small cars, though the Japanese company is likely to engineer an all-new small hatchback for the Indian market
Japanese carmaker Nissan, already present in India with its X-Trail SUV and Teana luxury sedan, is planning to also get into the small car segment in the country. Given that small cars is where the largest amount of growth is expected in the Indian autoscape, Nissan will start making a small car in India by the year 2010.
While the small car will be built at Nissan’s upcoming factory near Chennai, the Japanese company has other plans too – in addition to the new small car, it hopes to launch another five models in India, one or two of which might even be in the small commercial vehicles space.
Nissan’s small car is likely to be priced at around Rs 3.5 lakh, so it’ll be competing against cars like the Maruti Wagon R and Zen Estilo, Hyundai Santro and Chevy Spark.
Interestingly enough, Nissan is also exploring the possibility of getting into the Tata Nano segment, for which it may work in collaboration with its French parent, Renault, and Indian bikemaker, Bajaj Auto. Nissan may export both cars – its own small hatchback, as well as its Tata Nano competitor – to African and South American countries. And as reported earlier, Nissan will also buy about 50,000 units of the upcoming Maruti Suzuki A-Star compact car, and export those to Europe.
