Datsun to be key volume driver for Nissan in India

Japanese carmaker Nissan has just made its entry into the high-volume entry-level hatchback segment in India with the launch of the Redigo under the Datsun brand. The company is relying on the Datsun brand to boost its sales in the country and it sees a huge growth potential among the automotive segment in India.

“Datsun is a very important part of Nissan’s growth in terms of volume, not turnover. This is because with Datsun, we are addressing the mass market that wants to have access to four wheelers. If we manage to offer them a good product, design and safety at the right price, then we can get more people from two-wheeler market to four wheelers,” said Guillaume Sicard, President - Nissan India Operations, in a conversation with Autocar India.

Moreover, the Japanese carmaker aims to have a clear positioning of the Nissan and Datsun brands in the country in the long term. “In ten years, we want both the brands to grow independently, have their own markets and own positioning,” Sicard added.

Launched at an extremely aggressive price of Rs 2.39 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi), the Redigo unseated Maruti’s volume-grosser and country’s top-selling car Alto, which it undercuts by Rs 10,000, to become the most affordable car in India after the Tata Nano.

Interestingly, Datsun claims the Redigo offers segment-best maintenance cost as well, which is 32 percent lower than that of the competition. “The maintenance cost for the Redigo is around Rs 10,000 for 50,000km, which is 32 percent lower than the maintenance cost of the most expensive car in the segment,” Sicard said. 

The Redigo is based on the Renault-Nissan Alliance’s flexible Common Module Family (CMF) engineering architecture as the Kwid. In fact, it is the first Datsun product to be underpinned on the CMF-A platform. The carmaker hasn’t found much success with the Go and the Go+, with both models having failed to perform as per expectations. And with Datsun aiming to be the volume brand, Nissan will be counting on the Redigo to revive its sales volumes in the country.