Nissan Small Car hits Indian market

Nissan Motor Co’s small car is to start selling in India from July this year. The company also plans to export the vehicle from the country as Nissan wants to make India its global manufacturing hub.

Nissan India is a subsidiary of Nissan Motor Company which is the third largest automobile company of Japan.

Kiminobu Tokuyama, managing director of the firm said "We are well on track to open the new factory in March. Production will start in May and the first hatchback on the V platform will be sold from July."

He also announced that a sedan based on the V platform will be introduced in 2011 and another vehicle on the same platform will be launched in 2012.

Nissan is building a factory on the outskirts of Chennai which is worth 45 billion rupees ($984.6 million). The factory will be jointly owned by Nissan and its alliance partner Renault S. A.

Nissan launched its sports car Nissan 370Z in the country. With its launch the company has entered into the sports car segment in the Indian market. It features a 7-speed automatic and 6- speed manual transmission engine. The model has 3696 cc V6 engine which outputs 336 PS@7000rpm and 365 Nm@5200. The car weighs 3000lbs.

The vehicle is to cost between Rs 28-35 lakh. Nissan 370Z along with Teana and X-Trail are models in the series of fully imported cars from Nissan.