Nissan has announced that it is going to bring in a low cost hatchback for the Indian market in the price bracket of Rs. 2 to 4 lakhs. The Datsun brand that was discontinued by Nissan in 1981 has been revived again by the company as a low cost car brand for the emerging economies. Nissan has already announced that the Datsun brand will be primarily targeted for the automotive markets of India, Russia and Indonesia. Now, Nissan under the Datsun brand is aiming to bring in a low cost hatchback for the Indian market to compete with the Maruti Suzuki Alto and the Hyundai Eon.
The initial production might be commencing at Nissan’s manufacturing facility in Oragadam near Chennai but Nissan is considering a new factory especially for manufacturing Datsun cars. The Datsun cars are being targeted to be showcased at the 2014 Delhi Auto Expo and will be launched around the second half of 2014. The development work for the low cost car is expected to happen jointly at its Indian R&D centre and Japan R&D centre. Indian R&D will mainly focus on some parts of the interiors and exteriors while the Japanese R&D will focus on the platform development. The company is also developing a small diesel engine to be fitted in this model. Once it’s launched, Nissan wants that half of their volumes should come from Datsun and the other half from Nissan.
