Nissan Joint Venture With India Truckmaker

Oct.29, Nissan Motor Corp.announced a $500M joint venture with Indian truckmakerAshok Leyland to produce light trucks and engines in India for both domestic and export markets.

Nissan's CEO, Carlos Ghosn, on the visiting to India, is going to discuss a possible partnership between Renault and motorcycle maker Bajaj to produce a $3,000 car that would rival Tata Motor's planned "one-lakh" ($2,500) car in the race to capture share in what is the world's fastest-growing passenger car market.

Automakersare keen to tap the potential of India's growing auto market. The country will move from being the 12th largest producer of passenger cars and light commercial vehicles to the fourth-largest by 2016, according to automotive research group CSM Worldwide.

India is the world's fastest-growing automotive marketin those categories, with an annual growth rate of 14 per cent compared with 9 per cent in China.

Nissan's Monday agreement with Ashok Leyland consists of three joint ventures. One company will manufacture light commercial vehicles (LCVs) for both partners by 2010 and is expected to eventually roll out 100,000 vehicles a year.

The second will build and manufacture engines and components for LCVs and export.

The third, a technology development company, will make other truck products and components.

The Indian auto industry last year produced 11m cars, trucks, buses, motorcycles and other motor vehicles. An ambitious government and private-sector "Automotive Mission Plan ", outlined last year, set a production target of 3.2m passenger cars by 2016, up from 1.3m in the 12 months through March.