Nissan Motor said on Wednesday the new low-cost car it had planned for India would be sold under the firm?s revived Datsun branding, CEO Carlos Ghosn said here.
Japan?s No.2 automaker on Tuesday announced the revival of the Datsun brand, starting in India, Indonesia and Russia from 2014. The automaker will revive Datsun after three decades in a bid to increase sales in emerging markets.
Nissan will add two Datsun models every year in each of these markets helping the brand account for as much as half the company?s sales in India, Indonesia and Russia by March 2017.
The brand, its third, will help the company compete against companies Maruti Suzuki in India and Toyota Motor Corp in Indonesia, according to Ammar Master, an analyst at LMC Automotive in Bangkok.
?Datsun could bring in volumes at the lower end of the market,? said Master. ?While the Nissan brand will continue to move upmarket.? In India, Nissan sells its Micra compact hatchback from R421,765.
Maruti Suzuki derives the majority of its sales from the mini-car segment. The New-Delhi based unit of Suzuki Motor Corp offers its best-selling Alto model from R240,352. In October, Hyundai Motor added its cheapest model, the Eon, priced from R269,999, to compete with Maruti. Maruti had 42% of the total car market while Hyundai had 19% and Nissan 1.5%, according to Siam data.
?Datsun is an important part of the heritage of Nissan,? said Ashwani Gupta, programme director of Nissan?s newly-created Datsun Business Unit, in Mumbai.?We will offer our customers in India modern and spirited cars that they will be happy and proud to own?at an affordable price.? Gupta said that the cars would be priced under R4 lakh and engineered in India. ?The first two products under the brand will be produced in Chennai factory.?