Nissan Magnite will likely go on sale in early 2021 and it will be based on the same CMF-A+ platform as the Renault Kiger
Nissan Motor India was incorporated in 2005 and it expanded with the arrival of low-cost sub brand called Datsun. The Japanese manufacturer has not endured as much success as its alliance partner Renault in the domestic market and the plans to gain volumes through Datsun could not become as successful as expected. The alliance’s production facility in Tamil Nadu is not running at full capacity either due to low demand.
The company has been embroiled in financial troubles in recent times and it expects to have a massive annual operating loss of 4.5 billion USD. With the global health crisis only exacerbating Nissan woes, the brand currently rests its hopes on the upcoming compact SUV called Magnite. The five-seater will be the first launch from Nissan since the arrival of Kicks back in January 2019.
It will more likely debut in the early parts of next year while Renault’s compact SUV ‘Kiger’ could go on sale later this year in India. Nissan only has the Kicks in its portfolio currently as the more stringent BSVI emission standards led to the departure of models. According to a recent report emerged on the internet the “Magnite will buy Nissan a couple of years to figure out a plan for India..”.
It will determine whether Nissan will invest more in India or scale down its local operations reportedly. It is also said to be the “last hope” to revive the brand’s fortunes in India. The Datsun brand will likely be discontinued in the near future as well. While Nissan does not have any plans to retreat from India, the discussions on the strategic moves moving forwards is underway.
The brand is said to target a sales of 1,500 to 2,000 units of the Magnite every month and it will be priced “aggressively”. We do predict the starting price range of the compact SUV to be under Rs. 6 lakh (ex-showroom) and it will compete against Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza, Hyundai Venue, Tata Nexon, Mahindra XUV300 and Ford EcoSport.
Nissan also rests its hopes on exporting the Magnite SUV abroad and the sales outlets have reduced by half from 270 showrooms in 2018 reportedly. Despite having a smaller presence in the market, Nissan shipped 80,000 cars from its local plant – five times more than that of Renault last time out.