Nissan to manufacture next-gen Micra in France, not Chennai

Back in 2010, Japanese auto major, Nissan had moved the production of the Euro-spec Micra hatchback to Chennai from its plant in Sunderland, UK. This was done so that the production lines could be used for the production of the Juke crossover. However, this arrangement will continue only till the end of 2016, when the next-generation Micra (for European markets) arrives. According to the company's plans, the new Micra will be rolled out from Nissan's plant in France instead of Chennai.

According to a report by Business Standard, Nissan plans to use its Chennai plant to focus on the domestic market. The capacity at the plant that will be freed up by the moving out of the Micra production will be used for new products. For India and some other export markets, the Micra is likely to be replaced by a new car.

The Renault-Nissan Alliance set up a plant near Chennai with an investment of about Rs. 4,000 crore to cater to the domestic market and also make India an export hub. The plant has installed capacity of 4.8 lakh units. In 2013-14, 3 lakh cars were manufactured under Nissan and Datsun brands and 1.16 lakh units were exported out of which, the Micra contributed about 70%. Last year, Nissan became India's second largest passenger car exporter.

Nissan is now planning to reduce its export volume and attempt to increase its market share in India. At present the company controls about 3% of the market. The company had earlier set a target of increasing its dealership network from 28 to 300 and covering about 98% of the market by the year 2016.

Earlier this year Nissan sacked Hover Automotive India as official distributors of its vehicles and decided to undertake marketing, distribution and selling of its cars through its Indian subsidiary, Nissan Motor India Private Limited. According to the company, this step has seen Nissan's domestic sales grow by a staggering 166% in the first quarter of 2014-15.