The Renault-Nissan alliance is stepping up its investments in India to make for and sell in the world's third-largest automotive market.
The grouping, which also includes Mitsubishi Motors, plans to invest $600-700 million at its Chennai-based facility to step up platform localisation and improve sophistication levels in manufacturing, the management said at a press conference on Wednesday. That will spawn multiple powertrains, including hybrid cars, but surprisingly, not electric vehicles as planned earlier.
“The EV plans are under discussion. The focus is on exports now,” said Renault Group's Chief Executive Officer, Luca De Meo, at the press conference.
The company will also roll out four cars—five- and seven-seater SUVs—across both brands in the next three years. The localisation will be on the lines of the Renault Kiger and Nissan Magnite—sub-4-metre compact SUVs that are made in India for the world.
India is at the heart of the Renault-Nissan alliance's global operations, the group's chairman, Jean Dominique Senard, said.
“Renault-Nissan has 1.4 million cars on Indian roads. We have produced 2.7 million cars in our 17 years of operations, about half of which were exported,” Senard said. “The plant in Chennai has produced about 4.4 million powertrains… This (new investment) is the next era of this alliance in India.”
To be sure, Renault-Nissan's sub-billion dollar investment in India pales in comparison with the large-scale production by the likes of Maruti Suzuki India Ltd., but that leaves the alliance unperturbed even as its market share remains at less than 2%.
“We need to find our secret sauce in India,” De Meo said.
“Compared to the Big Boys (Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai India, Tata Motors Ltd., etc.), we are small scale. But we are global, with significant strength elsewhere that can be brought into India. Never underestimate the strength of this alliance.”
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