Renault Nissan Automotive India, the joint venture between France’s Renault Group and Japan’s Nissan, has just announced plans to delay its electric vehicle launches in the Indian market.
For context, the joint venture currently has a manufacturing plant in Oragadam near Chennai.
Renault and Nissan’s investment
According to Automotive News Europe, Renault and Nissan committed to invest a maximum of $700 million to develop and produce four new compact car models in India.
However, Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida and Renault Group CEO Luca de Meo announced Wednesday that their planned joint electric vehicle models will come later than expected due to the changes in the global market.
The upcoming vehicle models reportedly include five- and seven-seat SUVs for both Nissan and Renault. They will ride on the French automaker’s CMF-B architecture.
Plan changes
In hindsight, Nissan and Renault announced a new strategy in India in February 2023. At the time, they announced plans to develop and produce six vehicle models in the country. Of that total, the two will be compact electric vehicles for each automaker.
Nissan and Renault’s interest in the Indian market is unsurprising, considering that the country has advanced as the world’s third-largest automaker behind China and the US. However, it has been really challenging for foreign automakers to penetrate the local market due to various challenges, especially high import taxes.
Now, the companies’ top executives finalized that the planned two EV models will not yet arrive due to the changes in the global market conditions.
Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida and Renault Group CEO Luca de Meo further noted that any potential electric vehicle strategy in the country would heavily rely on the government’s support for electrification.
“We’re rethinking our strategy. We want to come up with a sustainable plan. We need an ecosystem and public support to make it work.”
Renault Group CEO Luca de Meo said at a press event in Chennai
Nissan plans to invest in Renault’s Ampere
In retrospect, Renault officially decided to cancel Ampere’s IPO (Initial Public Offering) in January due to “unfavorable market conditions” for electric automakers.
Nonetheless, Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida announced on Wednesday that the Japanese automaker still plans to invest in Ampere.
“We want to further our growth in Europe, we want to further have the leverage from the alliance. Regardless of the IPO, we are looking at Ampere. We are already discussing our investment in Ampere.”
Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida
As of now, Nissan and Renault’s joint venture in India operates a vehicle factory in Chennai and a technical center for the development of vehicles, software, and other technologies.
