Latest Car News in India

Renault small car to be based on Nissan-Datsun platform

If Nissan is bringing Datsun to India, how can Renault sit back and watch. Media reports suggest that the French car maker will soon be launching a small car that will be making things uneasy for Maruti Alto, Korean car Hyundai Eon and the American car Chevrolet Spark. Thus, it is sure that Indian car market that was hoping to get some small car offering and a probable replacement of Maruti 800 will soon get it from Renault. The price of this Renault small car is expected to be between Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 3 lakh. But amidst all this hoopla, Tata Nano remains the most affordable small car in India that has a price tag under Rs 1.5 lakh for the entry-level model.

Reports also suggest that the entry level car by Renault is at the assessment level and it will be dedicated to India from the line up of the most affordable cars by the car maker. Thus, there will be a car soon added in the Renault stable that will be placed much below the Renault Pulse hatchback. The low cost car is also expected to target India only and it will be built for the country alone. There are updates that the Renault small car will be based on a platform that will be shared with Nissan. Thus, we could give it a far guess and see a rebadged car based on the Nissan-Datsun small car platform.

Notably, Renault and Nissan have a joint establishment in India and both share the same production line and thus producing cars on each other’s platform is quite cheaper as well as affordable for the car makers. This also leads to lowering of the input cost and thus it could in no time that we could see a new small car from Renault and Nissan. Currently Renault produces Pulse based on Nissan Micra and there is one more car coming soon – Renault Scala that will be based on Nissan Sunny sedan.