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Mahindra Renault goes on a
Chennai drive
New plant in for Mahindra Renault
in Chennai
BY OUR AUTO CORRESPONDENT
February 22, 2006: It’s going to be
Chennai again. The partnership between
the Mahindras and Renault is said to
have zeroed in on the Tamil Nadu
capital of Chennai for its green field
manufacturing facility.
Scheduled to go on stream by year
2009, the plant will provide a new
address to Chennai which has already
turned India’s automobile hub with
many a player already having their
assembly lines here. M&M-Renault is
likely to ink a memorandum of
association with the Tamil Nadu
government by the beginning of March.
The auto majors had kick started a
joint venture company in India
recently. The new entity, Mahindra
Renault, plans to market diesel and
petrol variants of mid-sized sedan
Logan in the country and the car is
expected to be launched here within
the next few months. The Logan is
expected to be aggressively priced to
take on competition from the likes of
Maruti Esteem, Chevrolet Aveo, Ford
Ikon and Fiesta, Tata Indigo, Honda
City and Hyundai Verna. It may come
with three different engine options
and in as many as 11 variants, it is
beilieved.
With an initial installed capacity of
three lakh vehicles per year, the
proposed Chennai plant is likely to
house a power train unit. However this
has not been finalized.
It may be recalled here that Japanese
major Nissan had initiated talks with
Suzuki for entering the Indian small
car market . However, with the talks
not seeing any result , it is also
likely that Nissan would Join
Mahindras and Renault for a the
three-way partnership . In case that
happens Nissan's small car may also
roll out of Chennai.
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