Saturday, July 16, 2011
By Pranjal Gera
Bajaj Auto delays Mini car Plan
Bajaj Auto Ltd. earlier had plans to manufacture an economical minicar for Nissan Motors Co and Renault SA in India and now the company has decided to postpone the project as it has no interest in getting into low-margin passenger car business.
Reported by a reliable source, the company will launch a low cost commercial vehicle next year in January.
Last year, one of India’s leading two-wheeler makers, Bajaj Auto signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Renault-Nissan alliance to develop an ultra low priced car for the developing auto markets and for India and was planning to launch the car in the year 2012.
According to the MOU between the companies, Bajaj Auto would handle designing, sourcing and manufacturing of the low cost car and marketing of the car worldwide was to be done by Renault-Nissan.
The ultra low cost car was expected to give competition to world’s cheapest car, Tata Motors’ Nano.
The companies might have to face certain hurdles while deciding over the project but none of the partners were available for comments so, we will have to wait for any official announcements.
Some of the popular hatchback models in the Indian auto market are Toyota Etios Liva, Ford Figo, Maruti Swift, Hyundai i10, Chevrolet Beat and Volkswagen Polo. Apart from these popular models, cars going to hit the Indian roads this year are Chevrolet Beat Diesel, Maruti Cervo and Honda Brio.
