Nissan is not leaving a single stone unturned to get the grasp of the Indian car market which is bringing fortunes for all the automobile manufacturers. Micra and Sunny are the only two cars which are performing if not good but decent enough for the company. Nissan had high hopes with “Evalia” that the feature packed MUV will get it a major chunk in the market and will get the prospective Innova, Tavera and Xylo but it is still not able to create the same magic. Nissan has now realized that for country like India, the biggest segment is compact hatchback, so now they have decided to work on a low cost version of Micra.
Updated on 29th May 2013
Some spy shots of Nissan’s low cost Micra have been spotted after a long time. These clear shots show styling changes and spartan interiors. No information on the launch date for the car has been announced/leaked. Check out the images below:
The car will be a low cost offering and is understood to miss out on many features found on the standard Nissan Micra. Features like driver airbag, NVH reduction measures, fog lamps, rear-windshield wiper etc. will be given a miss.
It is speculated that the car will be powered by a petrol engine initially, a diesel variant may be offered depending on the demand. The 1.2 litre, 3-cylinder petrol engine currently doing duty on the standard Micra could be carried over to this variant.
photo source: IAB
Updated on 28th January 2013
Recently a camouflaged low cost Nissan Micra variant was spotted while testing on outskirts of Chennai by AutoCar India. The test mule suggests that there is not much change in the exteriors apart from a new tail lamp cluster, it is being predicted that the company might have compromised on the interior quality as a cost cutting measure. The new low cost Micra may go for fixed headrest instead of integrated headrest which most of the budget hatches in this category has. Feature list may also go down on the new low cost Micra and you may miss the Keyless Entry and Push Button start.
Nissan currently offers Micra in both petrol and diesel variant. The petrol variant comes with 3 cylinder 1.2-Litre petrol engine producing a peak power of 76 PS at 6000 RPM and a peak torque of 104 Nm at 4000 RPM giving a fair mileage of 18kmpl. The diesel gets a power from 4 cylinder 1.5-Litre Common Rail diesel mill producing a top power of 64PS at 4000 RPM and a peak torque of 160Nm at 2000rpm giving a mileage of 22kmpl. Both the options are mated to 5-speed manual transmissions.
Micra had clocked around 700 units in December 2012 and with the introduction of this low cost model the sales figures will definitely rise. Thanks to the performance and mileage of Micra. Nissan might not badge this new car as Micra and can go for different branding. Nissan might price this car at Rs 70,000 less than existing base model of Micra which is priced at Rs 4.23 Lakhs for the petrol model and Rs 5.98 Lakhs for the diesel model (Both prices Ex-showroom, New Delhi). The automaker might launch this new car in March 2013 after the annual financial budget is released.
After this price cut, the Micra base petrol variant will compete head on with the popular cars like Hyundai i10 and Maruti Wagon R in terms of price band. The diesel model will also become more competitive to rival the Figo, Ritz and Vista Diesel.
image credits – Autocar India
