As Renault-Nissan alliance with Bajaj for RE60 is going off-track, the French-Japanese partnership is moving towards other alternative. According to Nissan Motor Executive Vice President, Andy Palmer, the company is collaborating with Ashok Leyland for a new Ultra Low Cost (ULC) project. As per company reports, the car which will be priced in between Rs. 2 lacs and Rs.4 lacs should be ready by 2014.
At the 82nd Geneva Motor Show, Andy Palmer told PTI "We are working on multiple options of price-entry vehicles for the Indian market. One of them is being developed with engineering department of Ashok Leyland. This car will be launched around 2014." He however did not mention any details regarding the technicalities of the upcoming small car.
Earlier, Nissan and Ashok Leyland have worked together on many projects. Stile MPV and Dost LCV are the vehicles developed jointly by these two auto giants. Nissan is quite optimistic about Indian market and the new ULC project is a perfect example of it. However, Ashok Leyland does not have much interest in the passenger car segment and wants to restrict its association with Nissan for commercial segment only.
Many experts believe that Ashok Leyland will only participate in the manufacturing of the ULC but will not market it under its brand. For emerging markets, Datsun Badge will soon be revived by Nissan. Wearing Datsun badge, the first car which will come from the company’s portfolio is a rival of Tata Nano.
Apart from developing new range of cars, Nissan is concentrating on improving brand visibility and expanding its distribution network. It also plans to increase its production capacity from current 2 lacs units to 4 lacs units.
