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.