The Indian unit of Japan based leading car maker, Nissan Motors, is mulling over the option of using semi knocked down (SKD) units route for its popular luxury sedan Teana, in a bid to qualify for a lesser excise duty segment. The car would then be assembled at Nissan-Renault’s Chennai based Orgadan plant. At present, the company imports the Teana model as completely built-up unit (CBU) in the Indian market which attracts a huge excise duty of 110 percent.
Speaking on the matter, Mr. Kiminobu Tokuyama, CEO and MD Nissan India, said that the company has looked up all the options to increase volume and is studying semi knocked-down (SKD) option for Teana. Sporting a 2500 cc V6 petrol engine, the Teana sedan carries a price tag of Rs 26 lakh in the Indian market.
The Nissan Teana model was launched in the Indian market in year 2007 and since then the company has managed to sell over 764 units of this sedan in the country. So far in this fiscal, more than 179 units of Teana have been sold in the Indian market.
The company has said that the assembly operations at its Orgadan plant will be commenced by the end of second quarter of next year. The company is currently utilizing only 35% of the total capacity of 2,00,000 units at the jointly developed plant where it manufactures compact hatch Micra.
Besides Teana, the company imports the sports utility vehicle X-Trail and sports sedan Nissan 370Z through CBU route from its base market Japan. Both of these cars attract duties of over 100 % that comprises of excise duty, prevailing tax, education and automobile cess etc. On the other hand, the SKD route attracts only 25% duty (excise and others) in India.
