Nissan Discontinues Datsun Brand In India

Nissan India has pulled the plug on the Datsun brand from the Indian market. The company made an official statement in which it said that it has ceased the production of the Datsun redi-GO from the company's plant in Chennai. The company had ceased operations of the Datsun brand in global markets like Russia and Indonesia in 2020 itself. Given that the brand will cease operations in the country just 9 years after it was relaunched globally, the Indian market has a lot of customers who have bought the GO hatchback, GO Plus MPV and the redi-GO. The company has reaffirmed that aftersales service, parts availability and warranty support from its national dealership network will continue for all current and future Datsun owners.

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Nissan India also used to export made-in-India Datsun models to South Africa.

An official statement from Nissan India read, "As part of Nissan's global transformation strategy, Nissan is focusing on core models and segments that bring the most benefit to customers, dealer partners and the business. Production of Datsun redi-GO has ceased at the Chennai Plant (Renault Nissan Automotive India Private Ltd). Sales of the model still continue. We can reassure all existing and future Datsun owners that customer satisfaction remains our priority, and we will continue to provide the highest levels of aftersales service, parts availability, and warranty support from our national dealership network." The Chennai plant was the last manufacturing facility where Datsun models were still being made

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Both the Datsun Go and Datsun Go Plus received a comprehensive update in 2018.

Datsun India has had a nine-year long stint in our market. The brand began operations back in 2013 with the Go hatchback which later was joined the by Go Plus seven-seater compact MPV and then by the Redi-go in 2016. However, both the Go hatch and the Go Plus MPV were eventually phased out soon after they received a major makeover in 2018. Made-In-India Datsun models were also being exported to other emerging markets like South Africa. Datsun's sales performance in the domestic market too was deteriorating as last year it sold just over 4000 units in our market in the January 2021 - December 2021 period, accounting for a market share of 0.09 per cent.

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The Nissan Magnite was initially conceptualised as a Datsun model.

Nissan had revived the Datsun brand in 2013 after a long hiatus of 32 years and this time around, its focus area was the entry-level segment in emerging markets. But excessive cost cutting measures that took a toll on the finesse of Datsun models and poor crash test performance were some of the major reasons why its sales graph eventually tapered down. In fact, the Nissan Magnite subcompact SUV which stood to be the bread-and-butter model for the Japanese brand in India was conceptualised as a Datsun model, but later went on wearing the Nissan badge given the hotly contested segment it forayed in.