After a million meetings between the partners, the duo/trio has come to a decision on the Ultra-Low Cost car (ULC) which was showcased a year back. Renault/Nissan’s boss Carlos Ghosn said to the press that they have come to a decision on the project after talks with Bajaj but a formal written agreement has not been signed yet.
From what Ghosn said, it looks like Bajaj who is the brains behind the cheap sourcing of raw material and cost effective design of the car won’t be getting its badge on the car. According to the deal struck Renault/Nissan would take care of branding, marketing and sales. Rajiv Bajaj was not present during the Ghosn speech and was out of contact to get a quick comment.
Click through for Carlos Ghosn’s punch lines from the Press meet.
This is the 2nd set of rendering of the next generation Nissan Micra, after Nissan revealed the sketches of the production model. The new renderings are from Auto Express and are better than the older renderings as more details from the sketch are included.
The Micra will have Nissan’s “V” platform qualities. The “V” platform stands for “Versatility” and has in essence efficiency in both design and production. The car will be weighed down with 18% reduced number of parts. The sourcing of the parts will be done locally up to 80%, both these making up for efficiency.
The Micra will be produced in the Chennai plant and will be exported to Thailand, Bangkok, Japan and Europe. It will be showcased at the upcoming Delhi Auto Expo and will be available in India by may when the production starts.
The car is expected to sport a new 3-cylinder engine which will be mated to Continuous variable transmission (CVT) which is nothing but a automatic gearbox. It is also expected to have the stop-start system. both the transmission and start-stop technology will help increase the mileage of the Micra.
click here for the previous entries on this story!
Nissan revealed a couple of sketches of its “Global small car” yesterday. This is the replacement for Nissan’s current small car Micra in Japan and elsewhere. It is to be sold in 150 countries and it might bear a different name in different regions. The car will be produced primarily in Chennai, Thailand, china and two other undisclosed locations.
The new styling curves suggest that Nissan has kept the design on the conventional side. This New Micra shreds off its girly looks, which was unique. This will be Nissan’s entry level car in India with production starting from May 2010 at the Chennai Plant and sales soon after.
Check out previous posts on the Micra here.
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A Japanese newspaper reports that the Nissan Micra will be launched in India as early as May next year. May of 2010 is the month in which production will start at Renault-Nissan plant in Chennai. We cannot confirm the launch date but what we can confirm is, the next generation Micra which is up for the Indian launch will be unveiled at the Geneva Motor show in March 2010.
It is expected that the Micra will sport a 1L engine available with two options. The first being a entry level naturally aspirated engine , the second is rather interesting with both turbo and supercharger working side by side to boost up its power. This second variant will have dual-injection technology (will have to wait for Nissan to explain that).The Micra is likely to be made in two more body types, a sedan and a multipurpose vehicle (MPV).
The Porsche boxter killer (well, atleast in india with its pricing) is soon looking into an Indian swoop in. “Nissan will launch its sports car Z370 in the Indian market and is expected to be rolled out in January 2010,” Hover Automotive India (marketing partner of Nissan, India), vice-chairman, G M Singh told reporters yesterday (26th Sep).
The 370Z is one of the globally renowned sports cars coming from the family of Nissan’s Z cars. The 370Z is technically brilliant with enormous list of features for a very less price of US$ 30k that’s a sports car for an equivalent of 15Lakh Indian rupees. But we would have to pay at least 30Lakh due to the 110% import tax, since the 370Z will be brought into India as a Completely Built Unit (CBU).
The 370Z is powered by a 3.7 liter V6 engine with a Power output of 332 hp with 370 Nm of torque. The Nissan 370Z has a 0-60mph time of 5.1 seconds. However, the car has also been tested by Motor Trend Magazine, who reported a 4.7 second 0-60mph. The 370Z is currently available with either a six-speed manual gearbox or a seven-speed automatic with paddle shifters.
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Yesterday (Sep 16th) Nissan launched its super sedan Teana (which looks incredible gorgeous by the way) and the X-trail SUV. The ceremony was held in New Delhi. Both these will be brought in as CBUs and they are both priced between 21-25 lakhs.
click through for the Image Gallery and Press Release.
