The Hindu Business Line : Renault-Nissan’s R&D centre to work on cars for global markets

Plans ahead
By 2010, the centre is expected to employ about 1,500 technicians, designers and information systems professionals.
Design and development at the centre will also cover components that may be sourced from India for export.

S. Muralidhar

Chennai, Sept. 11 India’s hopes of becoming the preferred global product development hub for small cars will receive another boost with the setting up of the Renault Nissan Technology and Business Centre India Pvt Ltd (RNTBCI).

Nissan’s big plans for the centre include product development work for new vehicles that will be sold in other markets , in addition to developing India-specific vehicles. The Renault Nissan Technology and Business Centre India Pvt Ltd is a 50:50 joint venture between the French and Japanese automobile alliance partners.

Speaking exclusively to Business Line, Mr Colin Dodge, Senior Vice-President, General Overseas Market (GOM) operations, Nissan, said that the new technology and business centre being set up here will play a key role in the Japanese automobile company’s product development plans for many markets.

By 2010, when the RNTBCI unit will be fully staffed, it is expected to employ about 1,500 technicians, designers and information systems professionals. About 60 to 70 per cent of the employees at the centre will be attached to the Nissan Technical Centre in Japan and will be involved in core product development activity, Mr Dodge said. He added that at the initial stages, the RNTBCI would be providing basic CAD (computer-aided design) services, but will later scale up to cover the entire spectrum of product development work.

Design and development at the centre will also cover components that may be sourced from India for export and vehicles that are to be manufactured here for export to other countries.

He mentioned that, “the RNTBCI has been necessitated by the projected rapid expansion that Renault and Nissan are targeting to achieve in the next few years. It is not a relocation of jobs from the more expensive markets overseas. And it is not going to be restricted to serving the needs of the Indian manufacturing organisation alone,” said Mr Dodge.

M&M venture

Speaking about the new plant that Renault-Nissan and Indian joint venture partner Mahindra & Mahindra are putting up at Oragadam, near here, Mr Dodge said that Nissan is still working out its product plans for the Indian market and the final blue print of the choice of car will be ready by the year-end. He also said that the Chennai-plant would most likely have a common press shop. But the three automobile partners will have three different body shops and assembly lines at the plant.

Mr Dodge also mentioned that the Japanese company’s own version of lean manufacturing – Nissan Production Way – will also be integrated into the operations of the Chennai plant to make it as competitive as the company’s best plants worldwide.

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