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Nissan Motors India has plans on the anvil to export Sunny to Africa and West Asia. The managing director, Kiminobu Tokuyama said that the company will start exports next year. The company feels that there is a huge demand for cars in these regions.

Sunny is one of the most versatile mid-sized sedans launched by Nissan. This hatchback that was launched last month by Nissan is expected to tap the markets in these regions. It is the second car to be built indigenously after Micra. It has many versions: the cost of XE is 5.78 lakh, the mid-range costs about 6.69 lakh and the top-notch model, XV costs about 7.68 lakh.

The car maker has been producing cars for about four and a half decades and is quite confident that Sunny, the tenth generation car will give stiff competition to other cars like Honda City, Suzuki SX4 and Volkswagen Vento. The company has already sold Micra in Europe and now it is eyeing the West European markets for Sunny. Tokuyama said that the company was pleased with the exports of Micra. In about eleven months, the company was about to export around one lakh cars, which is a big achievement.

He added that, “This time around we are targeting the West Asia because of the demand there. Besides, we have already placed sedans from our UK and Spanish units in the European market.” The company is also plans to make India as a hub for supply chain management like other countries Chine Japan and United Kingdom.

The car maker has a manufacturing facility of 200,000 vehicles per year in Oragadam near Chennai. Its current dealership network comprises of 45 members and wants to expand it to 60 members. However, they are considering continuing the use of Ennore port (in Tamil Nadu) for export. Tokuyama remarked that “Export efficiency is critical to our Indian operations and we are having some issues with Ennore port in this respect where there is a lot of work to be done on costs and general infrastructure. We are in close communication with the port authority on these issues.”

The company has already launched 5 models in the country, which include: Tenea, Micra, 370Z (sports car), XTrail and Sunny. There are plans for the launch of a multipurpose vehicle in India, which will “be an MPV like Toyota Innova”. The Japanese car maker is currently also studying the feasibility of producing a small car in the country, this car will be priced between 2-4 lakh.

Tokuyama did not comment on rumors that the company might pick up a stake in Hover Automotive India, a company that has partnership in the service, sales, marketing, spare parts, and dealer development. He simply said that Nissan would continue to do business with them.