Nissan to Sell Terrano SUV in India From October - Wall Street Journal

NEW DELHI—The India unit of Nissan Motor Co. said Tuesday that it would start selling from October its first compact sport-utility vehicle with a starting price of less than one million rupees ($15,810). The Terrano is based on the Duster SUV of Renault SA of France, with which Nissan has a global alliance. The new SUV will be produced at a factory on the outskirts of the southern port city of Chennai. The Duster is also manufactured at the same joint-venture plant of Renault and Nissan. "Terrano marks our entry into the compact SUV segment, which is one of the fastest-growing segments in the Indian market today," said Kenichiro Yomura, president of Nissan's India unit. The Terrano nameplate was introduced by the Japanese company in 1986 and the current vehicle is the fourth-generation model. The Duster is the most-successful vehicle for Renault in India with sales of about 60,000 units since its introduction in July last year. SUV sales in India surged 52% in the fiscal year ended March 31 to 553,660 units, compared with a 6.7% decline in the sales of cars to 1.9 million units. But a recent 3.0-percentage-point increase in factory tax on SUVs to 30% has affected demand in the segment. Sales during the April-to-July period declined 1% to 160,919 vehicles. Demand has also been hit by subdued consumer sentiment in a slowing economy and rising price of diesel in India where most SUVs run on diesel. The Terrano would compete with models such as Ford Motor Co.'s recently introduced EcoSport, Tata Motors Ltd.'s Safari Storme, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd.'s XUV500 and the Duster. Nissan expects the new SUV to play a significant role in expanding its sales in India. The company sold 7,499 vehicles locally between April and July, a decline of 47% from a year earlier. It exported 28,232 vehicles, a 0.8% drop. The Terrano will be the fourth vehicle to be produced by Nissan in India—it currently manufactures the Micra subcompact hatchback, the Sunny compact car and the Evalia van. The company assembles the Teana premium sedan from imported parts at the same factory. It also imports the X-Trail SUV and the 370Z sports car in India. Customers can place advance orders for the Terrano from Sept. 1, according to Nissan. Nissan said last month that it would start selling from early 2014 the Datsun Go, the first model in a line of low-cost vehicles developed for emerging markets such as India under the company's revived Datsun brand. Write to Santanu Choudhury at santanu.choudhury@wsj.com via Technology - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNFnZCpoLz3Q5wv1ATD9lwZoHehy3A&url=http://stream.wsj.com/story/latest-headlines/SS-2-63399/SS-2-305186/

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