Nissan, Renault to invest $320m in Indian JV

The logo of Nissan Motor Co is seen on a monitor in a Nissan car at the company's showroom in Yokohama, south of Tokyo Feb 8, 2013. [Photo / Agencies]

Nissan Motor Co and Renault SA will invest about 30 billion yen ($320 million) in a new car assembly plant in India, the Nikkei said.

The plant, which will make Nissan's Datsun cars and new lower-priced Renault models by the second half of 2014, will increase the capacity of the joint venture's manufacturing base in Chennai to 600,000 units a year from 400,000 units, the business daily reported.

Nissan is reviving its old Datsun brand for emerging markets, planning to roll out two models priced at around 500,000 yen. The new plant is also expected to produce a new model in India.

Nissan hopes to raise its market share from about 1 percent in India, a market dominated by Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors and South Korea's Hyundai Motor Co.

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