Nissan may need new small-car partner after VW-Suzuki deal

[Zinam]

Nissan Motor, Japan s thirdlargest automaker, said it may need to find a new partner to manufacture its European small cars after Volkswagen bought a stake in Suzuki Motor, which supplies Nissan s Pixo model. We don t know yet whether that strategy is still good with Suzuki joining Volkswagen, Nissan executive vice-president Colin Dodge said in an interview. A lot of people believe not, and we re thinking about it.

Halting the Pixo would leave Nissan without a small, low-cost European model to compete with Fiat SpA s Panda and Volkswagen s Lupo in one of the few vehicle categories that is still growing. It would create a new hole in Nissan s product planning after Chrysler backed out of a deal last year to supply cars and pickups. That commitment was canceled after Fiat bought a controlling stake in the US carmaker.

A spokesman for Suzuki, Takuma Mizuyoshi, couldn t immediately be reached for comment. Volkswagen, Europe s largest carmaker, had no comment on whether the German manufacturer would try to cancel the Suzuki-Nissan partnership, according to spokesman Michael Brendel. Yokohama-based Nissan hopes the supply deal will continue and doesn t have the volume or vehicle designs to make European city cars profitably itself, Dodge said.

The Pixo, a version of Suzuki s Indian-made Alto model, plugged a gap at the bottom of Nissan s European lineup when it was introduced in April as government incentives accelerated a shift in demand toward smaller, fuel efficient cars.

Nissan is unlikely to abandon the city-car category if the Suzuki supply ends, Dodge said in the Feb. 10 interview. Affordable entry-level cars are going to become more relevant, and no big car company can afford to ignore that. Wolfsburg, Germany-based Volkswagen plans to make use of Suzuki s small-car designs for its own future models and has drawn up 35 cooperative projects, Germany s Manager magazine reported Jan. 21.

Suzuki currently supplies Pixos at a rate of about 30,000 a year, Nissan spokesman Gilles Gautherot said. That s less than half the annual consignment Nissan had said it hoped to negotiate. France s Renault owns 44% of Nissan. Nissan s partnership with Chrysler was dissolved in August.

Source : ET

[ilango[speed thirst]]

I read about 3 times to get it right. Phew.

[cooldhaya]

The only thing i can understand still is the title of the thread!! It conveys the message though!!

[Aditya]

Translation attached :

The A-Star, which is sold in Europe as the Alto, is also re-badged and sold as the Nissan Pixo with slightly different looks.
This is based on an earlier agreement between Suzuki and Nissan.
Both the variants are made in the Manesar plant (Maruti)
Now, with the tie up between Suzuki and VW, Nissas is rethinking the tie-up!!

[ilango[speed thirst]]

OOps i forgot the name , estilo as sold here had same face of nissan ____ i forgot the car name. i have seen in picture , exact as estilo .

Renegade do you remember this discussion.