With a view to make India as its hub for small car exports, the Japanese carmaker Nissan has begun trial exports of its global compact car Micra from its plant at Chennai. Notably, the company inaugurated its new plant in the southern region last month in the presence of its global chief Carlos Ghosn.

Moreover, after Hyundai announced its plans for making India small car hub, Nissan will be the second global automaker to do so in the domestic market.

While it is still early days for Nissan in the Indian market, it has been learned that the first trial consignment of six units of Micra, produced at the Oragadam plant in the outskirts Chennai, established jointly by the Renault-Nissan combine, left for Barcelona via Ennore Port, with which Nissan has signed an agreement for car exports.

It may be noted here that this consignment is expected to reach the destination in a period of 22 days. The new plant of Nissan is aiming to produce close to 80,000 units in the first year with a goal to reach full capacity by 2012 of 2 lakh units.