Nissan to source Micra from India?

Nissan's K13 Micra is one of the company's "brand-building models" in Australia. It's a car of paramount importance for Nissan Australia and is anticipated to expand Nissan's presence in the VFACTS light-car segment considerably.  That, in turn, will fuel the company's thrust towards 10 per cent share of the overall market.

"All of our market share growth -- or a significant part of it -- will be driven by a rebirth in the light segment," said Nissan's local MD, Dan Thompson, at the importer's 4WD Panorama event on Monday. So Thompson is effectively saying that Nissan Australia's sales growth from its current percentage figure of 6.0 per cent (year to date for 2010) to 10 per cent will be largely the responsibility of the importer's light-segment entry: the Micra.

Unveiled to the Australian public at AIMS last month, the new Micra will go on sale from December 1. Unlike the K12 model it replaces, the new Micra will be available in three grades (ST, ST-L and Ti), offering two engines: 1.2-litre three-cylinder and 1.5-litre four-cylinder. Both engines will provide buyers the option of an automatic transmission, but manual transmission will be fitted as standard.

It's the diversity of variants in the K13 Micra range that will ensure substantial gains in sales volumes, Nissan believes. In contrast, the K12 Micra was sold in just one variant, with automatic being the only transmission available, coupled to just the one engine and the car equipped in just the one level of trim. Also broadening the Micra's strength in the market will be a future sedan variant, Thompson told journalists on Monday.

In this segment, value and pricing are major factors in how well a car can sell. Nissan is right to expect a significant upswing in Micra sales once the new model hits the showrooms, but how long can that last? While it's new to the market, the K13 Micra could be a hit, but nothing remains new forever and other rivals will come along. Among those rivals may be cars built in Chinese factories down to a really keen price.

Perhaps that's why Nissan has established a factory in India to build the Micra, which is also known as the March in some European markets. Thompson informed the Carsales Network that the company has sunk US $1 billion into the new plant and it's ready to manufacture the Micra for Australia, if the need be. And the need could be anything. The Thai plant currently tasked with building the Micra for Australia might be swamped with orders from other markets, or the Thai Baht might increase in value to the point where the landed cost of the Micra in Australia overtakes its competitors built in countries where the cost of labour is lower. Even if the Baht remains stable, there remains the possibility that the light-car segment will be overrun by cheap cars from China...

Sourcing cars from India (as Hyundai and Suzuki already do), will future-proof the interests of established brands and models in Australia.

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