E-Paper
Nissan Motor to develop car for India, China
Nissan Motor plans to develop a vehicle for emerging markets, producing about 600,000 units in these regions by 2009.
Nissan Motor Co plans to develop a vehicle to sell in China, India and other emerging markets, producing about 600,000 units of the model in these regions by 2009, the Nihon Keizai business daily reported.
Total investment related to the project is expected to top 100 billion yen ($840 million), the newspaper said on Thursday.
A spokeswoman at Japan's second-biggest auto maker said the company could not comment on future product strategy.
Since skirting bankruptcy in 1999, Nissan has being focusing on high-profit vehicle segments and regions, most notably the light trucks market in North America. This has left it lagging in fast-growing markets such as India and Russia.
Japan's Suzuki Motor Corp and South Korea's Hyundai Motor Co, experts in producing low-cost cars suited for emerging markets, have been dominating in those regions.
Nissan's new car, which will sell for about $10,000, will have an engine displacement of around 1 litre and will be the smallest vehicle made by the company, the newspaper said.
The paper also said that Nissan would not manufacture the new car in Russia and was likely to produce a different vehicle for that country, where larger cars are standard.
Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn, who also heads France's Renault SA, has said there is room for cooperation with partners in Brazil, Russia, India and China -- collectively called the BRIC nations -- including by using each other's plants.
Ghosn is scheduled to unveil later on Thursday a long-awaited corporate strategy for Renault, expected to centre on polishing up its ageing product lineup and enlarge its regional reach.
