Carlos Ghosn, Nissan’s boss announced revival of Datsun, Nissan’s low cost car brand and this is going to target markets like India, Russia and Indonesia with India being the first market which would be forayed into.
He is going to come to India next year and unveil a couple of prototype low cost cars in the last week of July. These cars would be:
Datsun’s Cars
1) K2 prototype: This will be a B plus segment car and would be priced upwards of Rs.4 lakhs and compete with the Liva , Figo, Ritz and the likes.
2) I2 Prototype: The game-changer however will be this I2 protoype which will follow some months later and would be Alto, Eon and Nano challenger priced in the range of Rs.2-2.5 lakhs. The I2 makes immense sense for India as they already have a product in the price range of Rs.4 lakh plus in the form of Micra and its rebadged-engineered, Pulse.
3) MPV Based on K2: Following the K2 prototype will be a 7 seater MPV based on K2 which will gun for the Ertiga’s throne. We might get to see it a later time.
These cars are going to be displayed at the Auto show in 2014 and will be commercially launched after that. The topmost official coming down to India to display their prototypes pretty much tells us as to how seriously Nissan is taking the Indian market and its important for Nissan in the long run. He has already stated that the country has some great engineering talents which made the Tata Nano and made them enter a JV with Bajaj to produce a Ultra low cost car to rival the Nano.
Indonesia will receive the 7 seater prototype in October 2013 and Russia will receive a low cost SUV. Nissan and Renault already have Micra and Pulse present in the price bracket where they plan to put the K2. What remains to be seen is as to how would they differntiate the products to prevent cannibalization of sales.
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Source: Business Line
Richie Rich
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