Nissan To expand Production In Chennai Plant

Published: Friday, September 23, 2011, 12:27 [IST]

Nissan Motor India, the indian subsidiary of Japanese carmaker Nissan has said it planed to expand the production capacity of its plant in Oragadam, near Chennai to four lakh units per year by next year. The company has already started a feasability study for the same.

Nissan Motor India Managing Director Kiminobu Tokuyama said: “We do have a plan... We are studying it right now. We plan to increase the capacity to 4 lakh vehicles from the current 2 lakh units."

Nissan and its joint venture partner Renault have already invested over Rs.4,500 crores in the past seven years for the Oragadam plant. It unveiled the plant's first product the Micra hatchback in 2010. The carmaker has recently launched the second product from the plant, the Sunny sedan at a very affordable price of Rs.5.78 lakhs.

Nissan has now said it wants to increase the number of models that will be produced at this plant. The next model could be the diesel variant of the Sunny which according to Nissan India's CEO Dinesh Jain will be launched very soon.

Nissan's plans to expand production in its Chennai plant does not completely indicate an upward shift in its sales in India. More than 80 per cent of the Micra hatchbacks built in India are exported. The Sunny will probably have a larger share in the Indian market. To boost its sales in India Nissan is now planning to increase the number of its showrooms to 100 by 2013.

Nissan also sells the Teana sedan and the X-Trail SUV in India which are being imported as complete built units.