Nissan to Launch AMT on its Cars – Go, Go+, Micra & more

Nissan had a paltry market share in India so far but of late, they appear to have risen from slumber and are engaging better with the customers. Along with that, they launched their budget brand Datsun in India and has a few product launches lined up from its own stables.

Apart from all this, the Japanese major is reportedly working on a project which entails a new Automated Manual Transmission (AMT).

Datsun-Go (1)

If this news published at Autocar India is true, we are up for an AMT blitz in our market! With the Maruti Suzuki’s Celerio AMT getting such an amazing response, almost every small car manufacturer is trying to bring in an AMT variant in its model lineup and not surprisingly, Nissan also wants a share of this pie. They already use the XTRONIC CVT (Continuously Variable Transmission) in the Sunny as well as Micra but none of them are large sellers. So ideally an AMT variant of either or both of them would/could be the game changer as, with the lesser incurred costs, Nissan will have the option of pricing them more competitively.

Quite obviously, the benefit of the new transmission will also be passed on to its budget brand Datsun. In fact, it might be the first one to get it. Datsun’s sales have been decent considering Nissan’s standards but they have not really been as large as expected despite the fact that Go is a fantastic car.

Datsun-Go+-MPV-pics-grille

According to the report, the new AMT would be cheaper to build as it will be developed in-house from its existing manual transmission and this would allow it to be ready in a short amount of time. It will be being economical to build, in comparison to developing an all-new cheaper CVT. We have no information yet on whether this new AMT would trickle down to the Renault Pulse and Scala or not but considering that the JV companies share everything, there appears to be a big possibility.

The time frame for its launch has bot been provided but it should be sooner to cash in on the new buzz it has created. So, we expect Datsun Go, GO+ and Nissan Micra, Enjoy & Sunny AMT soon to hit our markets.

Related: List of All Upcoming Auto Gear Shift (AMT) Cars in 2014

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