Nissan to roll out 1st car from Chennai Unit in May

The Japanese automaker Nissan Motor India today said the first car from its Chennai plant will be rolled out in May.

"Nissan is very serious on the plans in India. We are well on track to roll out the first car from our Oragadam plant (near here) in May," Nissan Motor India Chairman and Managing Director Kuminobu Tokuyama told reporters here.

Nissan is setting up the manufacturing facility in collaboration with Renault and the new cars will have 85 per cent local content, he added.

The Oragadam facility, a 50:50 joint venture between Nissan and Renault, will initially manufacture 2 lakh cars and will be scaled up to 4 lakh units by 2012.

"We are even accelerating our India plans," he said, adding the inauguration of the facility will take place in March while the first car roll-out will happen in May."

Tokuyama was here to officially unveil the company's eighth dealership outlet Sheriff Nissan in the country. The company has plans to take the number of its outlets to 30 this fiscal and 55 in the next two years.

Nissan hopes to garner 5 per cent of market share in the car market by 2012, Tokuyama said.

Renault Nissan Automotive India Managing Director Akira Sakurai said they have already recruited 1,500 employees and given them training. "We are going well on schedule and almost ready to start production at the plant,"
he said.