Nissan Motor India Working on Car Smaller than Micra

Despite an aggressive pricing campaign for the Indian Nissan Micra, the company has realized that the only way it can be competitive on the booming Asian market is by developing a tailor-made inexpensive compact car. As a result, Nissan Motor India has started work on its small car project, which will be its entry-level model, positioned below the Micra both in size and price.

The Chennai-based company, earlier in talks with commercial vehicle maker Ashok Leyland for the same project, is now attempting to develop the new model from the ground up on their own. The new mini car might also become the replacement for the Pixo in Europe. The Pixo is actually a rebadged version of the A-Star made by Maruti Suzuki, the Indian company who has agreed to supply Nissan Pixos until 2013. After that point, Nissan might consider producing the new entry-level car at its Oragadam plant in Chennai where the Micra is also being manufactured.

“We plan to have a car below the Micra. We have a significant demand for this segment and we have been studying it. We are, at present, in the concept stage and studying customers,” stated Mr. Kiminobu Tokuyama, Managing Director & CEO, Nissan Motor India in a Business Standard interview.

Ashok Leyland's Chairman, Dheeraj Hinduja, declared in October that the car project with Nissan had to be abandoned because of an increasingly competitive market, that came as a result of better technologies brought in by bigger, global car manufacturers. The market that Nissan is looking to enter is dominated by models like Maruti Alto, A-star, Wagon R, Tata Indica, Chevrolet Beat, Ford Figo and Hyundai i10. There is no shortage of competitors, but we are looking forward to what Nissan can offer design-wise.