NEW DELHI: Japanese carmaker Nissan made a competitive pitch for the highly-lucrative Indian small car market with a sub-Rs 4 lakh pricing for its debut compact Micra, pitting it directly against some of the best-sellers from Maruti and Hyundai.
Micra is Nissan’s first locally-made car and its first in the mass segment. It will have a 1200cc petrol engine and Nissan has priced its base variant at Rs 3.98 lakh, close to models like Ritz and Swift from Maruti and i10 from Hyundai. The car, that will have a driver airbag as standard, will come in three variants with the top-end version — loaded with ABS and a push-button engine start-stop — priced at Rs 5.28 lakh.
“Nissan has adopted a uniform pricing policy across the country to offer a fair and equitable benefit to customers all over India. Thus, the ex-showroom prices will be uniform pan-India, except for states/cities where differential VAT, entry tax, octroi and other local taxes applicable would be levied extra,” the company said.
The entry of Micra has further crowded the big-volume small car market, that accounts for 70% of sales. The Micra is among the host of new models to have hit the small car market, the others being GM’s Beat, Ford’s Figo and Volkswagen’s Polo. Micra is priced below Polo’s Rs 4.4 lakh tag (in Delhi), but it is expensive than the Beat and Figo — both are priced around Rs 3.5 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi).
While the Micra seems to be a competitive product, Nissan’s poor retail presence could be an initial disadvantage. The company, that has appointed Hover Automotive India (HAI) for handling sales and marketing, will start with just 20 dealers and this will cross 30 by 2010-11-end.
Apart from selling in India, Nissan also plans to export the Micra to more than 100 countries across Europe, Middle East and Africa.
Micra is Nissan’s first locally-made car and its first in the mass segment. It will have a 1200cc petrol engine and Nissan has priced its base variant at Rs 3.98 lakh, close to models like Ritz and Swift from Maruti and i10 from Hyundai. The car, that will have a driver airbag as standard, will come in three variants with the top-end version — loaded with ABS and a push-button engine start-stop — priced at Rs 5.28 lakh.
“Nissan has adopted a uniform pricing policy across the country to offer a fair and equitable benefit to customers all over India. Thus, the ex-showroom prices will be uniform pan-India, except for states/cities where differential VAT, entry tax, octroi and other local taxes applicable would be levied extra,” the company said.
The entry of Micra has further crowded the big-volume small car market, that accounts for 70% of sales. The Micra is among the host of new models to have hit the small car market, the others being GM’s Beat, Ford’s Figo and Volkswagen’s Polo. Micra is priced below Polo’s Rs 4.4 lakh tag (in Delhi), but it is expensive than the Beat and Figo — both are priced around Rs 3.5 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi).
While the Micra seems to be a competitive product, Nissan’s poor retail presence could be an initial disadvantage. The company, that has appointed Hover Automotive India (HAI) for handling sales and marketing, will start with just 20 dealers and this will cross 30 by 2010-11-end.
Apart from selling in India, Nissan also plans to export the Micra to more than 100 countries across Europe, Middle East and Africa.
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