Japanese carmaker Nissan is planning to manufacture a small car for the domestic market based on a platform which it has developed in collaboration with French partner Renault.
Earlier this year, Renault had showcased small car Kwid which was the first product to be developed on the platform.
Sources said the new car will be available under the Datsun brand. With the new car, Nissan is trying to give the Datsun brand a fresh lease of life.
The Japanese auto major’s entry level product will be positioned below its hatchback offering Micra. Sources told FE the new offering will be armed with the automatic manual transmission (AMT) technology developed by Nissan. Most of the carmakers source the AMT technology from Italian firm Magneti Marelli.
Arun Malhotra, the managing director at Nissan India, told FE that Nissan will use the jointly developed platform to manufacture unique model in the small car space.
“It will be an entry level car. We will focus on that space as the entry level market in India is huge. There are established players in the segment and to make space for ourselves, we will have to get market share from them,” added Malhotra.
Nissan always had plans to use India as an export hub but of late the company has started expanding its presence in the domestic market with a focus on small towns.
“In next two weeks, we will open outlets at Sikar in Rajasthan and Solan in Himachal Pradesh. In next three and half years, our number of touch points will be doubled. We have also opened a dealership in south Delhi,” added Malhotra.
The inclusion of the AMT technology will help Nissan to position its new car against the Alto K10 and the GenX Nano.