After months of delays following differences over their ultra low-cost car?s branding, concept and pricing, joint venture partners Bajaj Auto, Renault and Nissan on Tuesday signed an agreement formalising roll-out plans for 2012?a year behind schedule.
Addressing a press conference on Tuesday, Carlos Ghosn, CEO of French auto major Renault and Japanese carmaker Nissan, said under the agreement Bajaj Auto will handle design, engineering, sourcing and manufacturing. Marketing?including the car?s branding?and parts sales will be handled by the Renault-Nissan alliance.
?The cost of this car would be lower than any car today made in India,? Ghosn said, in an apparent reference to the Tata Nano, currently the cheapest car in the world at just above Rs 1 lakh. However, Ghosn remained non-committal on the price-point of their offering.
The Bajaj-Renault-Nissan car, which is pegged in the same segment as the recently launched Nano, will be ?competitively priced? at the entry level and have a better fuel mileage than 20 km per litre, Ghosn said. He said India would be the primary market for the car, but exports to other emerging countries could be explored.
Talking about the reported differences between Renault-Nissan and Bajaj, Ghosn said the partners have ?overcome those challenges and now we have the same vision for the car?. According to reports, Renault-Nissan favoured a cost-competitive car to take on the Nano, while Bajaj Auto had stressed fuel efficiency, even at the cost of price. The design of the car was set in late 2008 while work on engineering aspects like the power train and engine had already been worked on.
While announcing the project in 2008, the combine had said that Bajaj would own 50% in the joint venture, while Renault and Nissan would have 25% each.
However, Ghosn on Tuesday did not furnish any update on the proposed structure.
Talking about developments at Renault-Nissan, Ghosn said it is building a passenger car plant in Chennai with a production capacity of 4 lakh units a year, which will be inaugurated in March. ?We have less than 1% marketshare in the country. We have to correct that by adapting to the needs of the Indian market,? Ghosn said. The company will increase its local product line-up in the near future, he added.
Currently, Renault-Nissan has only one car brand in the country, the Mahindra Logan, which sells under its alliance with auto major Mahindra & Mahindra. Ghosn admitted that the Logan?s sales in India have not been at par with other countries. ?We have to take corrective measures in this regard. We will work towards repositioning the car,? he said.