Japanese car manufacturer Nissan Motor will ramp-up production at its Chennai manufacturing unit by almost 50pc, company officials revealed during a media interaction. The plant has always been operating at below capacity after sales slumped by 60pc in the past five years.
The company’s Chennai plant produces the Magnite sports utility vehicle (SUV) which has seen healthy demand in India. This car model will also be exported to Indonesia and South Africa, according to a senior executive of Nissan Motors, but meeting the domestic demand in India is a priority, he added.
Production is set to reach 4,000 units in a month from the current 2,700 units being produced daily. The company has only one plant in India. Nissan has reportedly received 32,800 bookings in Jan 2021 for Magnite.
This sturdy demand is critical for the company after selling only 5,448 vehicles in the first eight months of the ongoing fiscal wherein sales were severely affected due to the pandemic.