Photo: Nissan Micra

Nissan Motor India, the wholly-owned arm of Japanese car maker Nissan Motor Company, has started production of its small car Micra on commercial basis at its Chennai plant. The Made-in-India hatchback car, Micra, is expected to hit Indian roads by July this year, stated information posted at the company’s website.

“The start of commercial production of Nissan Micra is the beginning of a new chapter for us in India. In an exponentially growing and challenging Indian automobile industry, we are introducing a product that has been specifically designed keeping in mind the discerning consumer needs of India,” Nissan Motor Company Chief Operating Officer Toshiyuki Shiga said.

From May 25, 2010, customers can take a closer look at the Nissan Micra as it will be displayed in all Nissan showrooms in the country. The company will start pre-order bookings the same day for Micra at all its showrooms against an initial booking amount of Rs 50,000, says the company website.

The new Nissan Micra will come with a 1.2-litre petrol engine and will have 85% localisation in components. The car was designed on the new ‘V’ platform. Nissan Micra was designed and tested in Japan. The other important aspect of the new Nissan Micra is that from the very beginning, more than 85% of its parts are procured through local vendors (96 in total) and 50% of them are located within Chennai.

Nissan is also looking at making the Chennai plant as a global hub for exports. The start of production for the Micra for exports will commence in July 2010 and the first shipment would begin from September 2010. Nissan is looking at exporting Micra to more than 100 countries including Europe, Middle East and Africa.

The initial production capacity at the plant will be 200,000 units with one line and the company is looking at producing more than 80,000 units in FY10.
Earlier in March, the Franco-Japanese auto alliance Renault-Nissan inaugurated its manufacturing plant at Oragadam, near Chennai, in which the two partners will together invest Rs 4,500 crore to produce four lakh units by 2015.

Renault-Nissan has made an initial investment of Rs 2,900 crore for production of 200,000 units annually, which can be scaled up to 400,000 units. It plans to produce about 80,000 units in the first year.

Nissan Micra is pitted against Maruti’s Swift, Hyundai’s i10 and i20. The new Micra will be produced in five countries — Thailand, India, China and Mexico. The fifth location is yet to be decided.

Check out these stories also:

1. Nissan March, Micra global orders touch 54,000 units in 6 months
2. Nissan unveils Micra, India launch in July
3. Ford India starts new Figo production at Chennai plant
4. Nissan launches 2 diesel variants of Micra at Rs 5.59 lakh
5. Nissan increases production capacity in China

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