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Nissan-renault Alliance to Increase Presence in India

The alliance between Japanese Nissan and French Renault seems to be looking at a new growing market – India. With the growing auto market in the said Asian country, the partnership seems to have taken a step further than introducing the Logan in the Indian auto market. If everything goes as planned, Nissan and Renault will be developing light commercial vehicles for the Indian market as well as be part of the production of compact cars for the market.

“There is no doubt both alliance partners Nissan and Renault are very significant players in the LCV market not only because it is booming in India, but also because both Nissan and Renault have an entire line up of products in that area,” says Nissan-Renault Chief Executive Officer Carlos Ghosn. It can be remembered that Nissan has faced a troublesome year in 2006 when it was overtaken by Honda as the second largest Japanese car company.

The declining sale for Nissan is the result of scarcity of models in their lineup. This has awakened the Japanese car manufacturer to develop and produce new models for the coming years. The announcement that the Alliance will be expanding their presence in India is evidence that they are solving their scarcity of models.

While the Alliance is on the verge of entering the light commercial vehicle market in India, Ghosn maintained that it is still early to be absolutely sure that they would indeed enter the said market. “The initial phase will focus on cars so we are not ready to talk about it yet,” says Ghosn. “There’s no point piling up plans without execution,” added the CEO. He also maintained that the time will come when they would be participating in the growing LCV market in India. “That doesn’t mean the day we think the time is right for LCV we will not go in for it. Because we will,” he further added.

Ghosn also announced that they are planning to team up with Indian car companies as they increase their presence in the country. Aside from engineering input from Indian partners, Nissan and Renault might also produce whole vehicles or particular parts like Nissan ball joints in factories in India.

The partnership’s aim to increase their presence in India is a good step for Nissan which is just recovering from yet another blow it suffered last year. In the United States, sales for Nissan are rising steadily for the past months. The company though would like to see sales figures rise even more. In connection to that and the fact that their fewer choices affected their sales negatively, Nissan announced that they will be coming out with 33 new models in three years time starting next year.