Click to play videoMumbai: Nissan is in a hurry to expand from the premium into the mainstream passenger car segments in India for volumes, as its home car market, Japan, is not showing any growth signs.
So, it wants to ramp up fast in the joint manufacturing facility with Renault and Mahindra in Chennai, expected to be commissioned by late 2009.
Nissan plans to hit the peak capacity of its share of two lakh units in the plant latest by 2012 and may add more capacity.
“It will be very arrogant for me to predict whether we would be stretching the volume by end of 2010, 2011 or 2012. But I'll be amazed if it wasn't full by 2012,” says Senior VP, Nissan, Colin Dodge.
And that volume would be close to 10 per cent of the projected volume of the Indian car market by 2012.
While Nissan will start with two compact car models based on the same platform to challenge Suzuki, it's also getting ready to challenge Honda's City with a midsize car.
“We haven't decided the precise fact. What you've said is obvious, what's happening to the market and it happens in all emerging markets. People start with smaller cars and then what we call the C segment,” says Dodge.
And following that model could be one that will be co-developed by Renault-Nissan's technical centre that's coming up in Chennai. Busy times ahead for Nissan in India as it gets ready to fight for space both in the passenger cars and light commercial vehicle markets.
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