Ashok & Nissan in a JV to launch a small car

The heavy vehicle manufacturing giant Ashok Leyland and the passenger car manufacturer Nissan have come together in a joint venture to develop a small entry-level car for the Indian market, which will challenge the dominance of the likes of Tata Nano. Andy Palmer, Nissan’s Executive Vice President,said to Indian Drives at the ongoing Geneva Motor Show that the company is busy with new projects where it is developing multiple options of vehicles for the launch of anentry-level car in the Indian Market. With the help of the engineering department of the truck manufacturing company Ashok Leyland, it is working on a small car which will be launched anytime in 2014. The car will be priced such that it will fit into the budget of the middle-class economical families of India. Thus industry sources believe that the price of the car will fall somewhere between Rs.2 lakh and Rs.4 lakh. But there are no specifications or features that have been revealed about this proposed car.

Ashok Leyland came into this joint venture with a mindset that they are only to manufacture commercial vehicles in collaboration with Nissan, but not passenger cars.However, it seems things have taken a different course all together. At present, a light commercial vehicle called ‘Dost’ is running well on the Indian roads because of this joint venture, but it carries the tag of Ashok Leyland only. The 1.5 liter three cylinder diesel engine of the Dost pumps out 53Bhp at 3300rpm, while the peak torque of 150 Nm comes from as low as 1600rpm. The five speed manual transmission has been mated to the engine of the Dost. The loaded Dost can do 0-100 kmph in just 18.5 seconds even when it’s fully loaded with 12.5 tons of goods. The top speed it achieved in the testing was 131 kmph after which the engine started sounding not so good. However, this LCV can run around a whole full day at 100 kmph without any pressure on the powertrain, which makes it perfect for moving around in the small area for a longer working duration. The LCV is fuel efficient and gives a good mileage of 14.3 kmpl, which is gradually making it a favorite of the small time LCV operators. The AC makes driving a pleasure in this vehicle.

The Japanese company is selling ‘Micra’ in the small-car segment market in India with petrol and diesel engines. The petrol variant has an 1198cc, 1.2 liter DOHC 12-valve three cylinder engine with a power output of 76 PS at 6000 rpm and a peak torque of 104 Nm at 4000 rpm mated with a manual five speed transmission. It gives a mileage of 14 kmpl in the city and 18.06 kmpl on the highways. The diesel variant has a 1461cc, 1.5 liter, SOHC, 8 valve, four cylinder common rail powertrain engine which can blast out a powerful 64 PS at 4000 rpm and a high torque of 160 Nm at 2000 rpm with the very same five speed manual gearbox the petrol variant has. Diesel engine gives a very good mileage of 23.08 kmpl according to the CMVR (Central Motor Vehicle Rule) of year 1989.

With a good experience in commercial vehicle by Ashok and passenger vehicle by Nissan, the new small car must carry a lot of unique features to suit the need of the Indian customer when it’s launched.