Nissan Magnite has been one of the major newsmakers in the Indian automobile market during 2020. Launched at a special introductory price of Rs 4.99 lakh (ex-showroom), India, it is currently the cheapest subcompact SUV in the country. Magnite has received a good response from the Indian consumers with the waiting period now stretching to 2-3 months. The Japanese automaker has received 15,000 bookings for its new model in just 17 days since its launch. As we already know Nissan Magnite is being produced at the brands Chennai manufacturing facility. Now the automaker plans to export the subcompact SUV to overseas markets also. This was confirmed by Rakesh Srivastav, Managing Director, Nissan Motor India Pvt Ltd in a conversation with ET Auto.
As of now, the manufacturing plant has a capacity of 5000 units per month so the real question is whether Nissan can cope up with the rising demand as it plans to export also. The automaker is bullish about the Magnite and is working to improve its manufacturing, R&D, and the supply chain in India. The total investment made by the company is around Rs 6000 crore in the country. Nissan admits exports have been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, so the focus first is on improving the supply chain. Further the manufacturer's primary focus will be the domestic market after which they would move to foreign markets.
In the conversation, Rakesh outlined their intention to engage in discussions with the distributors across the world to understand their requirements. Furthermore, Nissan will identify the markets where the exports will initially begin before moving on-to other countries.
Performance-wise, Nissan Magnite comes equipped with two petrol powertrains namely a 1.0-litre naturally aspirated unit and 1.0-litre HR0 turbocharged mill. The former delivers 71 bhp of maximum power output and 96 Nm of peak torque while the latter belts out 99 bhp of power with 160 Nm of peak torque. Both the engines come mated to a 5-speed manual gearbox while the CVT automatic unit is there in the turbocharged variant.
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