It is “Mission India” for Nissan, the auto maker from Japan. Having witnessed the fury of nature through ravaging floods in Thailand that devastated the nation, Nissan is in a bit of a quandary. A manufacturing unit in Thailand heavily contributes to all exports that Nissan does worldwide; the severe floods have meant that the export plans had to be re-evaluated. The automaker now plans to shift focus to India, where they in collaboration with Renault India, have set up a huge manufacturing unit in Chennai.
The capacity of the entire new plant is going to be used by Nissan for handling their complete export to other Asian countries, including the Middle-East. Work in the production plant at Chennai, in which the auto maker has already invested Rs.4,500 crore, is going on at full capacity and the plant has developed the competence of bringing out 4 lakh units a year. The Nissan Micra and the Nissan Sunny are being produced in this very plant. All this information was confirmed to the media by the CEO, Nissan Motor Corporation, Toshiyuki Siga during an interaction with the media at the Tokyo Motor Show.
The CEO is highly impressed with the development of this manufacturing unit at Chennai. He also disclosed plans of Nissan to export their small car, the Nissan Micra in the Middle Eastern countries. India has been identified as a center for major development in the future by Nissan. Though the company has R&D facilities at US and China, apart from India, they feel that the Indian unit is more akin to their growth plans. The Tokyo Motor Show has literally been dominated by Nissan, who unveiled four new concept cars at the event. All the electric car models that Nissan has been conceptualizing were displayed during the show and included the much-hyped Nissan Leaf. Apart from that other models, the Townpod and the Nissan Pivo3 were also showcased. A new concept SUV, aimed at carrying forward the Juke lineage, “The Nismo” was also displayed by the company.
