Nissan Magnite deliveries commence, prices to be hiked in January 2021

Nissan India has begun delivering the Magnite compact SUV to customers who pre-booked the vehicle. Customer deliveries of the Magnite have commenced across the country. Here is a picture of an actual customer delivery.

The Magnite is the most affordable Nissan SUV to be sold in India, with an introductory price of just Rs. 4.99 lakh. Owing to the sharp pricing, the Nissan Magnite become an instant hit with the Japanese automaker receiving over 30,000 orders in a matter of weeks. Prices of the Magnite are all set to go up from January 2021 as Nissan prepares to hike prices across its car range. Both Nissan and Datsun cars will be up to 5 % pricier come January 2021. Higher input costs are said to be behind the price hikes. Apart from Nissan, most other car makers in India including Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai, Mahindra, Ford, Honda, Tata Motors, Volkswagen, Renault have announced price hikes in January 2021.

Rakesh Srivastava, Managing Director, Nissan Motor India Pvt Ltd, had this to say about the impending price hike on Nissan and Datsun branded cars,

With the launch of the all new Nissan Magnite, Nissan has reiterated its commitment  to offer innovative and exciting products under the Nissan brand. Nissan aims to offer the best value proposition to its customers in India. In the current challenging market conditions, we are constrained to increase the price of all Nissan and Datsun models due to increased costs. The proposed price increase will be effective from January 2021.

The Magnite has been Nissan’s first hit car in India in years, all thanks to sharp pricing and right positioning. The high demand has meant that waiting periods of the compact SUV have skyrocketed to as long as 9 months. The compact SUV is a petrol-only offering that undercuts its rivals such as the Maruti Brezza, Toyota Urban Cruiser, Hyundai Venue, Kia Sonet, Ford EcoSport, Tata Nexon and Mahindra XUV300.

The Magnite offers two engine options: a 1 liter-3 cylinder naturally aspirated petrol engine making 72 Bhp-96 Nm, and a turbocharged version of this engine making 99 Bhp-152 Nm. Both engines get 5 speed manual gearboxes as standard while a CVT automatic gearbox is offered as an option with the turbo petrol engine.

A key selling point of the Nissan Magnite is its affordable maintenance costs. In fact, Nissan claims that the Magnite is cheaper to maintain than every other sub-4 meter compact SUV sold in India, with a maintenance cost of just 29 paise per kilometer. Magnite owners can save further on maintenance costs by opting for the Gold/Silver maintenance package that Nissan sells through its dealers. Called the Nissan Magnite Care, these packages can be opted for 2 years to 5 years, depending on the customer’s choice. Nissan also offers an extended warranty on the Magnite for absolute peace of mind for 5 years or 100,000 Kms. The standard warranty on the compact SUV runs for 2 years or 50,000 km. If the Magnite continues to sell well after the initial spurt, Nissan will have truly have made a solid comeback in the Indian market.