Nissan India, the Indian unit of Japanese auto giant Nissan Motors, has launched the much awaited diesel version of Nissan Micra hatchback in the Indian market, on Friday. The new Nissan Micra Diesel has been offered in two variants at Rs 5.59 lakh and Rs 6.05 lakh (Ex-showroom), respectively.

The new diesel variant of the company carries a 1.5L eight-valve four-cylinder engine that is capable of delivering a peak power of 47kw at 4,000rpm. Both variant of Micra come mated with a five-speed manual transmission and are claimed to be offering a class-leading fuel economy of up to 23.08 km/l.

Before this, in July this year, the company had launched the petrol version of Micra in the Indian market that has been registering impressive sales in the country since than. So far, the company has managed to sell more than 6,000 units of Micra Petrol in India.

As per a statement given by Nissan India’s MD and CEO Mr. Kiminobu Tokuyama, the success of the Micra Petrol version in the Indian market has given the company confidence to introduce the diesel variant of the car within six months of its launch in response to popular demand. He was briefing to the reporters at the launching ceremony of Micra Diesel in Mumbai.

The new diesel version has been placed in B+ segment of cars where it will be fighting for space with the likes of Volkswagen Polo, Maruti Swift, Maruti Ritz, Ford Figo and Fiat Punto. Currently, about 85 percent content of Micra is sourced locally and only the engine and transmission are sourced fro company’s plants in China and Japan.

Moreover, the company plans to launch this car to as many as 100 new foreign countries by Oct 2011. In order to meet the demand for this car in both foreign and domestic markets, Nissan India is aiming to ramp-up the Micra manufacturing capacity to 2,00,000 units per annum by next year.

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Posted by Yogendra Oza on 13 December, 2010 1:25:17 PM IST #