The first-ever manufacturing plant of the 11-year-old Renault-Nissan global alliance was inaugurated at Oragadam near Chennai on Wednesday by Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi in presence of Nissan chairman and CEO Carlos Ghosn.

The plant, set up with an initial capacity to produce 2,00,000 cars will have a total investment of Rs 4,500 crore over a span of seven years and both the companies have invested Rs 2,300 crore till date. The production for the domestic market would begin in May and sales would start from July. For exports, the company – Renault Nissan Automotive India Pvt Ltd (RNAIPL) would commence production from August, said Akira Sakurai, CEO and managing director, RNAIPL.

?The Chennai plant is a strategic one for both the partners and the first one to be set up under Renault Nissan global alliance. We see there is a huge market in India for our cars and the new Micra will be positioned at B and B+ segment and will be competitively priced,? he said. The new Micra will have a localisation level of over 80% to start with. ?The plant was set up in two years time since the company signed an MoU with the state government way back in 2008. This plant will have an initial capacity of 2,00,000 units per annum which will be scaled upto 4,00,000 units by 2012-13. We hope Renault will begin production by mid 2011 with a slew of vehicles including Renault Koleos and Fluence, both for the Indian market,? he added.

Explaining in detail about the joint venture plant, Akira Sakurai said, ?The Chennai unit will have 96 vendors to start with and add more vendors going forward when we introduce new vehicles.

Out of this, 50% vendors will be from Chennai and nearby places and 30% from Delhi and the remaining 20% from Pune and Bengaluru.? The plant would have six dedicated vendors inside the complex who would supply to this plant and later to others, he added.

According to him, the Chennai plant will start exporting components worth $20 million in 2010 which would be increased to $40 million by 2012. The JV will have an employee strength of 1,500 to start with and will create 6,000 jobs in near future, he pointed out.

Vincent Cobee, Corporate vice-president, V Platform, Nissan, ?The new Micra is far superior than the earlier one and was developed under V-platform of Nissan. The V-platform gives flexibility and cushion to manufacture three different vehicles including that of hatchback, sedan and an unique multi purpose vehicle.