Japanese Nissan Motor Company, Indian Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) and French Renault have formed a consortium to develop a new facility in Tamil Nadu for the manufacture of passenger cars and utility vehicles.
With a combined investment of Rs.4,000 crore (US $ 889 mn), spread over seven years, M&M will own 50 % in the venture, while Renault and Nissan will hold the rest.
Located 60 km from Chennai, at Oragadam, the facility will include a powertrain facility for Renault and Nissan, and will have a production capacity of 400,000 units per annum. Spread over an area of 1,100 acres it is the largest of its kind in Tamil Nadu, and will provide employment to over 5,000 people. Besides it plans to use the local vendor base and work hand-in-hand with the auto component industry in the state, thereby also boosting the auto component industry.
Banking on a lot of synergies and economies of scale for each company, the consortium expects the first vehicles to roll out around mid-2009. While M&M will concentrate on multi-utility vehicles, Renault’s focus will be on products under the Logan platform. Nissan, meanwhile, will look at manufacturing compact cars for India and a few models for exports. |
