Nissan may locate manufacturing base with Suzuki in Gujarat: CNBC

17 October 2006

Japan's second largest carmaker Nissan is close to finalising its new manufacturing location in India. According to a report by CNBC-TV18, Gujarat may be chosen as the destination.
Nissan is set to establish its manufacturing base in Gujarat.

According to sources, the company along with Suzuki is planning to invest upto Rs3,000 crore for a 600,000-car per annum plant. It has already submitted a proposal to the Gujarat government and held talks with promoters of Mundra, Kandla and Pipavav ports.

According to sources, the plant will come up by second half of 2008. When contacted, a senior Nissan official said that various options to expand its India business are being considered and a decision would be taken sooner rather than later.

However, a Maruti Udyog spokesperson denied this saying, "There's no decision taken about a joint manufacturing operation apart from the one where Maruti's new Manesar plant will manufacture cars for Nissan."

Sources say, Nissan and Suzuki are looking at a location with a population of atleast 15-20 lakh so that it offers fairly good social infrastructure. Nissan is also learnt to be developing a new B segment vehicle for global markets, and it is possible that car may also be manufactured in India.

And if that happens in Gujarat, then it would have something to cheer about, especially when others like Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu are attracting the big-ticket investments by global automobile majors.