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Nissan Motor Co took the wraps off the first car in its revived Datsun brand in New Delhi on Monday - a sub-Rs 400 000 sedan that is part of a raid by the Japanese automaker in cheap car for emerging markets.
With the Datsun sedan Datsun and other models to follow over the next three years - one of which could be as low as Rs 4000 240000 if Nissan can achieve its aggressive goals of manufacturing costs - Nissan tramples always so close ultra-low-cost car market.
The market in India is now occupied by famous Tata Nano, a barebones car that sells for Rs 150 000-220 000.
We try to keep the price competitive positioning Datsun, so that products are attractive to the lower half of the car market in India, where Nissan has some competitive products today, the Director of Nissan Datsun program Ashwani Gupta, told Reuters in an interview.
It is a movement that has generally been resisted so far by other global auto giants such as Toyota Motor Corp. for fear of a scruffy, ultra-cheap car model could tarnish their brand value.
Senior executives of Toyota, whose current president Takeshi Uchiyamada, dismissed a chief engineer designing a car emerging markets at low cost it several years ago, saying he was too cheap to be called Toyota announced an engineering leader.
The car has since undergone several design iterations and was finally launched in India in 2010, the Toyota Etios sedan, which starts at Rs 545000 A hatchback version of the car, launched in 2011, starts at around Rs 450,000.
Since Nissan plans to market the Datsun cars in India through its existing Nissan dealers, Datsun could expose the Japanese automaker to similar risks, although the leaders minimize the possibility.
They say that the use of a separate brand name should effectively protect the brand image of Nissan Datsun, Nissan, once used for its cars outside Japan, has a history dating back to the 1930s.
We're serving different customers with Datsun, said spokeswoman Tatjana Natarova Datsun, adding that the reason why we came up with another brand.
To make affordable cars Datsun, Nissan aims to reduce manufacturing costs 3 000 to 5 000 per vehicle The first car is due for launch in India early next year, Gupta said the company has partially achieved cost objectives.
Yet as competitive price that may be, it will face formidable competition from Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai Motor Co, which together control two-thirds of the passenger car market in India, excluding sport utility vehicles and vans.
Maruti has about 1200 retail stores in India, while Hyundai operates a network of over 350 stores Nissan, however, only has about 100 dealerships, but he said he plans to triple its number of stores to 300 in March 2017.
Nissan said last year he would restore the name Datsun as a capital for emerging markets, starting with India, Russia and Indonesia Finally, it wants to expand in Southeast Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa.
For the new name stick, Nissan does not plan to stop with a sub-Rs 400 000 Carmela plans to expand the Datsun brand appeal following his first car with a second model by the end of the year next vehicle and a third by 2016.
Nissan is still trying to reach the goal of producing a Datsun car for as little as 3,000 per vehicle, said an executive speaking on condition of anonymity.
If we met that there would be a good possibility that we could offer the car for 4000 on the retail market, the executive said.
It's not as cheap as the Nano, but Nissan is not intended to compete directly with the Nano anyway, the executive said.
For the year ending March 2017, Nissan wants to capture 10 percent of the global market for Indian passenger vehicles including sedans, sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks Nissan had less than 1 percent market share in May, data from the Society of Indian automobile manufacturers showed.
By then Datsun aims to generate a third to half of total sales in India, which has bought 2 7 million vehicles for the year ended March 2013, said Mr Gupta.
To achieve low manufacturing costs, product team Datsun cars designed and manufactured in such a way that almost all the components necessary to build could be purchased in India, said Mr Gupta.
India has an auto parts supply base relatively limited if the acquisition almost all the components needed at the local level is challenging Mr Gupta said that if Nissan aims to remove the exploit not only in India but Indonesia and Russia.
He said the Datsun cars would be stripped of features and functions that do not provide value to customers in the markets they aim to make affordable cars.
Nissan will thus probably avoid developing new technologies instead, it uses proven technology, including foundations of vehicles, engines and transmissions, which are expensive to develop is also likely to trim costly features such as power windows, navigation systems and additional safety airbags.
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