Nissan and Renault to invest $600m in India, the 3rd largest world market.

Nissan Motor Co and Renault SA announced on Monday that they will invest $600 million to produce six new models in India. India is one of three areas where the two automakers plan to closely cooperate under a restructured alliance that was revealed last week.

The action will assist in addressing the Japanese and French companies’ declining market shares in a market with growing global significance.

Nissan Chief Operating Officer Ashwani Gupta told reporters, “This investment is really important, not only on products but on technology like EVs, to really capture the developing Indian market, which is the third-largest market in the world and also to leverage India as a platform for export.

In a joint announcement, the two businesses announced that they would each produce three new models in India using shared engineering and component platforms.

The firms’ debut EVs in India would be two of the models; the other two would be sports utility vehicles.

Everything will be produced at the underutilized auto facility in Chennai, southern India that the corporations jointly own. There is also a center for research and development there.

Nissan and Renault will also work closely together in Europe and Latin America under a new organizational framework for their 20-year-old global alliance, which was unveiled on February 6.

In 2022, the two businesses collectively held about 3% of the Indian market. The stakes for Renault’s success in India are higher since, in contrast to Nissan, it has a relatively small footprint in China, the US, and Japan.

According to S&P Global Mobility, India saw a 23% increase in industry-wide sales last year, reaching 4.4 million vehicles and surpassing the Japanese market.

Although Nissan sold 35,000 automobiles in India last year and Renault only 87,000, the Chennai facility is capable of producing roughly 500,000 vehicles annually.