Renault - Nissan to have significant presence in India in 10 years: Carlos Ghosn

Renault – Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn told reporters in Chennai yesterday that the alliance is poised to play a significant part at the growing Indian automobile market over the next 10 years.

In India for the inauguration of the Renault Nissan Alliance plant, its first green field project in India, Ghosn said that  there was a clear strategy for India and "we are pulling the act behind this strategy" Ghosn said.

"We do not want to be a niche player in the Indian market, by selling imported cars, but develop into a full fledged player through local manufacturing with locally sourced parts produced to be marketed to the local market here in India," he said.

The Chennai plant, which will have an initial capacity of 200,000 cars by the 2012, will be scaled up to 400,000 cars by 2015. The plant will be a major driver for the Nissan - Renault Alliance in India.

"Our partnership philosophy in India has been the sharing of our technology and experience with our partner who in turn introduce us to frugal engineering and frugal product planning, thus, improving our potential to produce vehicles for the developing markets," Ghosn said.

Commenting on the alliance's joint ventures and projects, he said that the ultra low cost car project with Bajaj Auto is on track and that there were no plans to produce the low cost car at the Chennai facility.