Japanese auto maker Nissan Motor Co Ltd has started developing a global strategic vehicle that will be built at nine plants around the world and sold in 27 countries and regions, a daily said Saturday. Nissan aims to sell 1.6 million units of the 1.5-liter-class subcompact car in the year to March 2008 mainly in emerging markets such as China and Russia, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun said.
The new vehicle will use the same type of chassis as the March, Cube and Tiida subcompacts currently sold in Japan, enabling the company to lower production costs, the business daily said.
At first, Nissan plans to begin producing the vehicle around 2006 at a Chinese plant in Guangdong Province, the production site of its joint venture with Chinese automaker Dongfeng Motor Corp, for export as well as for use in China, it said.
Nissan then plans to start producing the vehicles in Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, South Africa and Mexico in by the end of March 2007, and in Indonesia the following fiscal year.
The prices of the models will vary depending on region, but are expected to be set at about one million yen (9,500 dollars) to 1.5 million yen.