Datsun grille and logo
The small car market in India is booming as ever, and being a price driven segment it gives a good opportunity for car manufacturers like Nissan to introduce its low cost brand Datsun to the Indian market. Although it’s not the first time that Datsun is brought into the market, but it’s certainly the right time. Nissan is all geared-up to bring back the Datsun brand low cost cars to the markets like India, Russia, Indonesia and South Africa. It has now emerged that the Datsun low cost car brand will be launched in India on the July 15, 2013.
In India the launch will happen at the Kingdom of Dreams in New Delhi and Carlos Ghosn, the global CEO of Renault-Nissan is expected to raise the curtain off the first Datsun model which will be a five-door hatchback and is expected to be priced around INR 4-lakhs. However, Nissan India did not confirm, nor deny the Datsun launch date. Same was the answer when asked whether they will reveal a Datsun car or not during the premiere.
In the first phase, Dastun is planning to launch two small cars for India. Both the upcoming Datsun cars will be smaller than the existing Nissan Micra. The first product i2, is a rival to the Maruti Alto and the Hyundai Eon. While the second car codenamed K2 will be based on the last-gen Micra’s K11 platform andw ill rival the Maruti WagonR, Maruti A-Star and base variants of the Hyundai i10. Nissan also plans to make India its hub to manufacture the Datsun cars which will not only supply cars to the local markets but may also cater the demands from the international market.
Indian engineers, led by Gerard Detourbet, the father of the low cost car and the creator of the Dacia Logan, are developing two core Datsun products at the Renault-Nissan Technology and Business Center India in Chennai.
Also see – Report – Datsun plans to launch 5 new cars by 2015 in India
