Datsun, Terrano to keep Nissan India’s assembly line running in top gear

Nissan Motor India Pvt Ltd will devote nearly half its production capacity to making the Datsun range of cars, according to Kenichiro Yomura, Managing Director and CEO.

Production of the Datsun compact cars will start from the next quarter at the Oragadam car factory in Chennai, which it shares with its global partner Renault SA, the French carmaker, and has a total capacity of 400,000 cars a year.

In a conversation with

Business Line at an event to mark the export of Nissan’s 300,000th car from the Ennore Port , he said between the Datsun and the ongoing production of the premium SUV Terrano, a “great contributor to volumes”, the company hopes to achieve near full monthly capacity utilisation. The Terrano, launched earlier this month, saw a pre-booking of about 6,000 units with 3,000 coming this month.

“Sales in the first-half in the domestic market have not been very good,” Yomura said.

Exports have been stable for the Japanese carmaker at about one lakh units a year since its started production in September 2010. Nearly 80 per cent of its exports are the Micra, the compact car, mostly to Europe. The balance is the sedan, Sunny, which is in demand in West Asia. The company exports cars to around 120 countries, including African nations, Australia and New Zealand.

>balaji.ar@thehindu.co.in