Nissan to manufacture LCVs from mid-2011

Nissan Motors said on Thursday it will start manufacturing light commercial vehicles along with its joint venture partner Ashok Leyland from mid-2011.

Nissan has several joint ventures in India. The one with Ashok Leyland is for manufacturing light trucks for the domestic, as well as export markets.

Executive vice-president Colin Dodge said, to start with, the joint venture partners are looking at producing partially from Ashok Leyland's unit as well as Nissan's unit, which is under construction at Oragadam, near Chennai.

He added that the company's board will meet and discuss how to take the project further.

Last month, Nissan's joint venture partner Ashok Leyland had said the initial investment was Rs 2,000 crore (Rs 20 billion), which has to be scaled down. Nissan did not comment on the cut in the investment.

The joint venture partners initially were planning of produce 3-, 4- and 6-tonne vehicles. Now, in addition to that, Nissan is looking at producing some more products for overseas markets.

The company has announced it would roll out its first car from Oragadam, near Chennai, in May 2010.