Team-BHP - Nissan Micra to become cheaper

Today the Financial Express has reported about the possibility of Nissan reducing the prices of the Micra through higher localisation and lowering cost of manufacturing.

Quote:

Nissan's Micra car may get cheaper

To create a foothold in the domestic car market and rake in numbers, Japanese car maker Nissan Motor is looking to re-position its hatchback Micra in the voluminous A2 segment. Last month, a team of senior Japanese cost engineers visited India to hold discussions with vendors to cut costs of its components. The team was led by Takeshi Kawai of the cost engineering department of Nissan Motor.

An industry source privy to the details told FE that the rationale behind the visit was to re-look at the engineering aspects of the car and also simultaneously increase its local sourcing from India. “The last six months has witnessed several new car launches. Nissan is an important player in the market and realises that cost advantage could make the difference,” he said.

Source - Nissan's Micra car may get cheaper

That's good news but how much of a reduction can be achieved remains to be seen. In its present form, the Micra is better than the competition in several areas and let's just hope they dont compromise on that.

for the recently launched dCI MICRA , they should bring in the XL variant and price it below 6 L on road . This should do a sales boost for the MICRA . I dont think so that they can do a cost cut in the existing model so soon [ its only 5-6 months since they had launched the car]

This news is not clear. Are they planning a 'Cheaper variant' or are they planning to reduce manufacturing cost of existing variants by asking their vendors to cut cost of its components and pass that as a discount?

Quote:

Originally Posted by HammerHead (Post 2183437)

IMO Nissan might remove the std. Airbag feature from the new base variant and this along with increased component localization could result in a lower price tag.

As far as I read, its more of a look out of localization to cut down the source cost to cut down the final cost. There is no mention on cutting down features.
One thing that stands distinct with MICRA is that its std Airbag feature from the base version and it shouldnt be taken away for cost cutting purpose.

Prem.

This would for sure boost the sales of Micra, however we would also need wait and watch to see how much reduction is happening.

Also they should increase the dealership, with current 22 dealers they cannot expect more Micra to be sold. They could have increased the dealership and then went in to cost cutting mode. I am not sure what is stopping or hindering them from increasing the dealership!!

Although the reduction in the prices is good news, what needs to be seen is how long can Nissan hold on those prices and also will it do any good to the company which is still in the start up mode.

I would have loved to hear Nissan announcing more dealer/workshop outlets which would bring more sales and still maintain the price. Imagine a city like Thane does not have a Nissan dealership.

Quote:

Originally Posted by vigneshnr (Post 2183957)

If the news is true, I think it is not a great news for the recent owners. For nissan, this will affect loyalty & create mistrust.

I think it is normal for cars to get cheaper as time progresses. Think of several models like the Alto, Ikon, Fiesta which were launched with high price tags but slowly came down. Moreover, such activities will not result in an immediate cost down. They will happen over a period of time.

@Mods -

I had mentioned about the possibility of a new variant because the article has mentioned that certain engineering aspects of the car is also being looked into. As vigneshnr pointed out, Nissan would never reduce the price of its existing variants as this will cause discontent among its current owners and prospective owners will also be wary of going for the Micra.

Quote:

An industry source privy to the details told FE that the rationale behind the visit was to re-look at the engineering aspects of the car and also simultaneously increase its local sourcing from India. “The last six months has witnessed several new car launches. Nissan is an important player in the market and realises that cost advantage could make the difference,” he said.

I think it is about time they did so. When going in for a car for my wife, I kicked myself as I completely forgot about this car, Would have been interesting to think about.

With reduced prices, it will definitely get some more sale, as it has some great segment features. Only problem is the low number of outlets