Nissan may not be the best car seller in the Indian automobile market but is definitely one of the clever players. If we talk about value for money cars, Nissan Micra and Nissan Sunny perfectly fit in that category but unfortunately none of the two is able to pull enough sales for the car maker and therefore it adopted the path of exports.
But is exporting cars more important than serving the domestic market? Actually no, and this is why Nissan has come up with something very interesting and exciting. The small car market is undoubtedly one of the best segments to put your efforts in and one of the best example of the same is Hyundai i10. Hyundai launched the car a few years back and haven’t looked back since then. It is a value for money proposition which is why it is still in demand.
Now Nissan is targeting the i10 and is working on a low cost variant of the Micra petrol. As of today the Micra XE base petrol variant is priced at Rs. 4.2 lakhs and the low cost variant, code-named G02A, is expected to cost Rs. 50,000 less.
image – Nissan Micra Small Car India
The Petrol version of Micra is available in three different variants starting with the XE. The same, XE base variant, is appealing in terms of features and comes with body colored bumpers, engine immobiliser, driver airbag, digital clock and tilt steering. Most probably Nissan will strip off tilt steering, driver airbag and digital clock which will reduce the cost of the base variant by a significant amount. Nissan could also opt to replace adjustable front seats head rests with cheap, fixed type design which is seen in the Toyota Etios and Hyundai i10.
At a price of Rs. 3.65 lakhs, the Micra will be a strong contender and will give i10 a run for its money. As of now no confirmation on the launch of the same is available, though we expect the car to go on sale by April 2013. Presently Nissan sells close to 1500 units of Micra a month but the new variant will surely catapult the sales. We will keep you posted on the latest updates on Nissan Micra, stay tuned to Car Blog India.
Source – ACI
