New Delhi: Pune based two-wheeler maker Bajaj Auto, which had announced plans of developing a small car in collaboration with Renault and Nissan will announce the final details of the project in a few weeks says managing director Rajiv Bajaj.

According to Sylvain Blaine, managing director of Renault India, specialist teams from the Bajaj Auto, the Renault-Nissan alliance are engaged in deciding the viability of the project. "We hope we will complete it in one-and-half months," he informed the press.

Last year, Bajaj Auto and Renault started preliminary discussions for beginning the small car project together and have since brought in Nissan as a partner in the development programme.

Daring cynics who looked askance at the company's efforts to launch a small car, Bajaj Auto unveiled the prototype of its concept car at the start of the Auto Expo two days before the launch of the Rs1-lakh Tata Nano.  It also announced a price of $3,000 for the car. 

Later post the launch of the Nano Renault Nissan's managing director Carlos Ghosn scaled down the price to $2550. 

Showcasing the car Rajiv Bajaj had laid a time frame of two-four years for the car to be ready.

According to Bajaj the car could be powered by both diesel and petrol engines and would have a unique transmission technique. The company is mulling plans to roll out these cars from its manufacturing unit in Chakan that will have an initial capacity of 2,50,000 units per annum.

Renault currently has a partnership in India with Mahindra & Mahindra which sells the low-cost sedan Logan. It has not partnered with M&M for the small car venture because the latter wants to be a global player in the SUV market and feels that this venture would not bring attractive margins.

Bajaj Auto stands to gains as it has a large distribution network and good production infrastructure. Its diversification into the small car market is mainly due to the declining market share of bikes in the overall automotive market in India.