Nissan Motor set up an office in India last April, since then the company has sold around 180 units of X-trail, its SUV, and its variant, the Elegance.

And now it is hitting the market with another X trail variant, this one is called the X-pecial priced at almost Rs22 lakh for the SUV, which has been tweaked cosmetically. Nissan hopes this launch will help it double its sales to 300 units this year.

"While, we are trying to study which model will fit into which segment, at the end of the day for us to be successful, we have to be a presence across the segments," says Neeraj Garg, director marketing and sales at Nissan Motor India.

With India emerging as one of the hottest auto markets, Nissan is hoping to make up for the lost time. According to CNBC-TV18 the company will pump in at least Rs3,000 to Rs4,000 crore to kick start its manufacturing operations in India. Nissan says studies are on to zero in on the right model from their existing 180 model portfolio for the Indian market.

"Small cars March, Mogo, Tita, Tiana and Infiniti are the major models. Otherwise Nissan has around 180 models globally. From 600cc to 5,000cc," said Garg.

The Nissan-Suzuki pact, signed earlier this year, will also help Nissan get a stronghold in India and maybe even catapult India to an export hub for small cars.