Nissan’s Micra Hatchback to be launched on 14 July
23 Jun 2010
Japanese car major Nissan said on Tuesday its subsidiary Nissan Motor India will launch its much-awaited small car Micra in July.
"The new Nissan Micra will be launched nationwide on July 14, 2010," the company said in a statement. The company will roll out the new Micra from its recently inaugurated facility at Oragadam near Chennai. (See: Nissan-Renault alliance to open Chennai facility next month)
The likely price of the base version of the hatchback is expected to be below Rs4 lakh. The company has earlier said that it will pit the new Micra, which comes with a 1.2 litre petrol engine, against Maruti's Swift, Hyundai's i10 and i20. These cars are priced between Rs3.44 lakh and Rs6.95 lakh.
Nissan Motor India, which recently roped in Bollywood actor Ranbir Kapoor as brand ambassador, had started bookings of the car in end of May and has so far received 1,049 orders. The carmaker said that pre-order bookings of the Micra have crossed the 1,000 mark in just four weeks. The highest number of bookings has been recorded in Delhi, followed by Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Chennai.
"We are delighted with this encouraging initial response. With the launch of the new Nissan Micra next month, Nissan will begin an exciting journey in India aiming to provide Indian customers with a full range of products and services," Nissan Motor India managing director and chief executive officer Kiminobu Tokuyama said. He added that he was confident that the booking trend would continue till mid-July, when the model would be launched.
The company has announced that it will produce 80,000 units of the new Micra, for both domestic and export markets in its first year. Nissan will export the Micra to over 100 countries, including Europe, the Middle East and Africa, by the later half of 2010.
The new Micra will be produced in five countries including Thailand, India, China and Mexico. The fifth location is yet to be decided.
The Japanese carmaker had earlier said that it was targeting to sell 1,00,000 vehicles in India by 2013, for which it will launch nine models in the next two years, including the sedan version of the Micra.