Bajaj Auto, Renault to announce small car details soon

18 February 2008

New Delhi: Pune based two-wheeler maker Bajaj Auto, which had announced plans of developing a small car in collaboration with Renault and Nissan will announce the final details of the project in a few weeks says managing director Rajiv Bajaj.

According to Sylvain Blaine, managing director of Renault India, specialist teams from the Bajaj Auto, the Renault-Nissan alliance are engaged in deciding the viability of the project. "We hope we will complete it in one-and-half months," he informed the press.

Last year, Bajaj Auto and Renault started preliminary discussions for beginning the small car project together and have since brought in Nissan as a partner in the development programme.

Daring cynics who looked askance at the company's efforts to launch a small car, Bajaj Auto unveiled the prototype of its concept car at the start of the Auto Expo two days before the launch of the Rs1-lakh Tata Nano.  It also announced a price of $3,000 for the car. 

Later post the launch of the Nano Renault Nissan's managing director Carlos Ghosn scaled down the price to $2550. 

Showcasing the car Rajiv Bajaj had laid a time frame of two-four years for the car to be ready.