Japanese automobile joint venture Nissan Motor India Limited unveiled the diesel variant of its Micra compact hatchback car, priced between Rs.5,58,500 for XV and Rs.6,04,500 for XV Premium (ex-showroom Delhi).
"The success of the petrol powered Micra in the Indian market has given us confidence to introduce the diesel variant within six months of its launch in response to popular demand," said Kiminobu Tokuyama, managing director and chief executive of Nissan Motor India.
The B+ segment hatchback's diesel variant is powered with the 1.5 litre common rail direct injection, mounted on Nissan's V platform.
"The 8-valve, 4-cylinder diesel-powered Micra generates power rated at 47Kw (64PS) at the rate of 4,000 rpm, while torque output is 160Nm at the rate of 2,000 rpm and comes with a 5-speed manual gearbox," said the company in a statement.
Though the company has achieved around 85 percent of localisation, engine and the five-speed gearbox are imported from its plants across Asia, including Japan and China. The features of the diesel powered-variant, which gives a mileage of 23.08 km per litre, are common with the petrol-class as 'Key plus Immobilizer' which allows for a key less entry, a 'push-button engine start-stop system' and electric foldable mirror.
Nissan Indian had rolled out the petrol variant of Micra in July and sold about 5,000 units during the last four-five months. The company has also started to export, in small numbers, the petrol variant to Europe, Middle East and Africa since October. According to a company official, the annual production capacity will be ramped up to 400,000 units from the present 100,000 units, but no specific time frame was given.
"We will ramp-up exports to about 100 countries, including South Africa by October 2011 after meeting the domestic demand by scaling up the production to 200,000 units per annum," said the official.
The company also plans to introduce a new range of models for domestic and export markets by 2011-2012.In 2008, the company had signed an agreement with the government of Tamil Nadu to invest a total of Rs.4,500 crore (about $980 million) over the next seven years. Nissan formed the 50:50 joint venture with French automaker Renault to set up a manufacturing plant at Oragadam near Chennai with an upfront investment of Rs.2,300 crore (about $500 million).
