The company assembled its first engine on September 2009.
Renault and Nissan announced their intention to establish a joint manufacturing facility at Oragadam (outside Chennai) and signed an MOU with the government of Tamil Nadu in February 2007.Renault now says that instead of receiving Mahindra Renault-badged vehicles built at the Oragadam plant, M&M will instead utilise available capacity at the new Chakan plant and other existing facilities to meet its medium term requirements.Nissan has decided to manufacture it's small car - the Micra at it's upcoming factory at Oragadam, near Chennai and plans to launch it by June 2010.The company has already entered into contracts with nearly 10 suppliers of which around 20 are expected to set up their units in the supplier park. The company plans to achieve 80 - 90 percent localisation and hire 1,500 people by April 2010 whic will be increased to about 3,000 by 2012.According to a further Renault statement, its Indian rival will "evaluate a new automotive plant at Oragadam to further enhance its capacity". M&M' own Chakan plant will manufacture Mahindra passenger vehicles as well as Mahindra International trucks (Navistar joint venture).The Indian and French OEMs both point out that their Mahindra Renault Pvt. Ltd. (MRPL) joint venture that builds the Logan locally is not affected and that their ongoing relationship continues. Indeed, the partners note that they are currently evaluating the feasibility of launching the Logan MCV. The forthcoming vehicles to be built by Renault at its Chennai plant will be marketed by MRPL under the Mahindra Renault brand and sold through the M&M sales channel.
Recently, in a meet Kiminobu Tokuyama, MD & CEO, Nissan Motor India Private Ltd. said that the company had decided to shift the production of the Micra from it's manufacturing plant in UK to India.The planned capacity of the plant is 400,000 vehicles a year and the total investment planned is about Rs.4,500 crore. The investment may not be split equally between the JV partners.As earlier announced, export from the Nissan Oragadam plant is expected to start in the second half of 2010 and the company plans to export 1,10,000 vehicles from this plant in 2011 and to increase it to 1,80,000 units later. The company has already signed an MOU with Ennore port to export vehicles. The company aims to achieve a market share of about 6 per cent by 2012. Akira Sakurai, who was earlier General Manager of Vehicle Production Engineering Division is currently the Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer of Renault Nissan Automotive India Private Ltd.
The company assembled its first engine on september 2009. It has been recruiting workers with diploma and B.E. graduates from in and around oragadam. By 2010, they plan on releasing their first car. By 2012, we expect that this plant will have a work force of more than 5000.
