Nissan to ramp up Magnite production to cut waiting period

Since its debut on December 2, the new Nissan Magnite, the compact SUV, has been a runaway success in the fiercely competitive Asia’s third largest car market, making a strategic turnaround for the loss-making automaker.

The new car has on an average clocked bookings of over 1,000 units daily, posing a challenge to its rivals. It has crossed

32,800+ unit bookings with a threemonth waiting period for delivery.

For the struggling Nissan, the Magnite was a make-or-break model in the car market dominated by Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai which control nearly 70 per cent of the market.

“We will hire 1,000 more workers at our factory in Chennai to ramp up production to up to 4,000 cars a month from

2,700 cars at present to meet rising local demand,” Rakesh Srivastava, managing director at Nissan Motor India told Financial Chronicle.

The company also plans to export the made-in-India compact SUV to Indonesia in the January-March quarter and then to South Africa, he said.

The company also plans to recruit more staff at the dealerships to attend to the customer enquiries and test drive requests.

The demand for the Magnite jumped up as it was awarded a 4-star on the crash test rating by Asean NCAP, increasing its safety and security on the crowded Indian roads, where accidents are not uncommon.

The maker of Nissan Kicks and Nissan GT-R models would start the third shift to reduce the waiting period of three months.

Magnite is Nissan's bid to take on the extremely lucrative and closely fought sub-compact SUV segment—which currently has the likes of Kia Sonet, Hyundai Venue, Maruti Vitara Brezza, Tata Nexon, Mahindra XUV300, Toyota Urban Cruiser—is certainly paying off.

Also, the Magnite’s pricing makes it the cheapest in its segment, starting with an introductory price of Rs 4.99 lakh. The company has also not raised prices, except for the base model by Rs

50,000, which makes it now Rs 5.49 lakh. The other 19 variants cost between Rs

5.99 lakh and Rs 9.59 and the CVT automatic is priced at Rs 7.89 lakh.