Nissan-Renault joint venture seems to be well on track with its targeted investment into its Chennai plant along with the manufacturing capacity planned. So far, Nissan Motors has invested over Rs 2300 crore at its India plant as compared to the promised investment of Rs 4500 crore by year 2015. The MoU with Tamil Nadu government, detailing this investment, was signed in year 2008, when the company had promised to state government an investment of Rs 4500 crore at its Chennai plant in seven years.
According to Kiminobu Tokuyama, managing director and CEO, Nissan Motor India, "Of course we don't need to wait for seven years. We have the production capacity of two lakh as of now and we have invested Rs 2300 crore so far. That is the current status. And we are studying the situation to increase the current capacity to four lakh.” He was speaking on the sidelines of launching ceremony of Nissan Micra diesel in Hyderabad city.
At present, the company is manufacturing its global sub-compact car Nissan Micra at this plant. It plans to export Micra to as many as 100 foreign countries in the regions like Africa, Middle East and Europe, from here. So far (since Oct 2010), Nissan India has exported over 15,000 units of its Micra hatchback to Europ and plans to take this figure to 1.1 lakh units by Oct 2011. While next year, Nissan JV partner Renault would commence manufacturing of its upcoming cars in India including Koleos and Fluence, at this plant.
