Chennai, Oct 1 :Japanese auto major Nissan Motors Thursday unveiled the first sketch of its global compact car to be manufactured in five countries including India.

"We are serious and committed in our plans for India, and are all excited as we gear up to start production in May 2010," said Kiminobu Tokuyama, managing director and chief executive of Nissan Motor India.

Recently, the US auto giant Ford Motor unveiled its small car Figo that will be manufactured in its Chennai plant.

Nissan will roll out three different variants of its hatchback and sedan models, as well as a multipurpose vehicle (MPV), from five plants across the world.

While the India plant is coming up at Oragadam, 55 km from here, Thailand and China will house one plant each. The company is yet to announce the other two locations.

The idea is to roll out one million vehicles, or 25 percent of the company's current annual sales, from the five plants.

Nissan plans to ship out 110,000 units from the Indian plant from 2011 and later increase it to 180,000 units to more than 100 countries.

Nissan also plans to make India as its global sourcing hub for auto components.

Sixty percent of the components that go into the three models are interchangeable, providing a huge competitive component sourcing opportunity for Nissan.