Nissan to launch diesel variant of Micra in December

Nissan India is launching the diesel variant of its Micra compact hatchback in the second week of December.

"India will be the first country to have the 1.5-litre K9K diesel version of Micra hatchback with intelligent key, immobiliser, a push-button engine start-stop system and electric foldable mirror," Nissan Motor India chief executive Kiminobu Tokuyama told reporters in Bangalore yesterday.

The company rolled out the petrol variant of its Micra in July, which has sold 5,000 units since then.

"The success of the petrol-powered Micra in the Indian market has given us confidence to introduce the diesel variant within six months of its launch in response to popular demand," Tokuyama said at a pre-launch media briefing.
 
Nissan entered into a 50:50 joint venture partnership with French automaker Renault to establish a manufacturing plant at Oragadam near Chennai with an investment of Rs2,300 crore (about $500 million).

"We signed an agreement with the Tamil Nadu government in February 2008 to invest a total of Rs4,500 crore (about $980 million) over the next seven years for ramping up the annual production capacity to 400,000 units from the present 100,000 units and introduce a range of models for domestic and export markets," Tokuyama said.

Though the level of localisation at present is around 85 per cent, the engine as also the five-speed gearbox, are imported from Nissan's plants across Asia, including Japan and China.