Nissan May Need a New Partner for its Small Car Model

Maruti Suzuki sells its A-Star model to Japanese car maker Nissan which is on its turn being sold as Nissan Pixo in the European market. This is the only small car model in Nissan’s European product portfolio and it competes well with Fiat Panda and Volkswagen Lupo in the EU market.

Volkswagen has recently bought stake in Suzuki Motor Corp. Both the companies are planning to jointly produce small cars especially for the developing markets. As a result, Nissan now anticipates that it may have to look for a new partner to manufacture its European small car. However, there is no official word either from Suzuki or Volkswagen about the future of Nissan-Suzuki partnership for manufacturing small car models for European market. Suzuki currently supplies Pixos at a volume of about 30,000 a year, Nissan spokesman Gilles Gautherot said.

American car maker Chrysler already backed out from a joint venture last year with Nissan to supply cars and pickup vans when Italian car maker Fiat bought a controlling stake.

Nissan is planning to become debt-free by end of 2010 as it expects to double its market share in the Middle East. "We are far from our potential (in the Middle East)," said Carlos Ghosn while talking to reporters. "I am looking to double our market share," he added without offering any timeline.

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