Japan’s third largest car manufacturer, Nissan has revealed that it will be looking for a partner to manufacture small cars for the European market. Presently, Nissan’s smallest car is the Micra followed by the highly acclaimed Note. However, look closely and there is a gap under the all new Micra which is presently occupied by the Pixo. The Pixo is actually Maruti Suzuki’s A-star (Alto to the rest of the world) with a different nose. With VW taking a majority stake in Suzuki, the duo might just stop the supply of Pixos to Nissan. This will mean searching for a new partner but this is what we ask Nissan – Is it really necessary?

After the comment, this is what Colin Dodge, Executive Vice President of Nissan had to say. “We don’t know yet whether that strategy is still good with Suzuki joining Volkswagen,.A lot of people believe not, and we’re thinking about it.”

The absence of Pixo will leave Nissan without a competitor in the hottest selling small car segment in Europe. Nissan has met with success with the Pixo after the scrappage scheme which meant many chose to trade-in their old cars for fuel efficient smaller ones. This meant an immediate surge of sales for the Pixo, so much that Nissan increased its orders from Maruti. In Europe, the Pixo competes against the likes of  Fiat SpA’s Panda and Volkswagen’s Lupo. One more blow for Nissan came after Chrysler backed out of a deal to supply Nissan with cars and pick-ups. The reason being Fiat’s takeover of Chrysler. So this leaves Nissan with a hole in its line-up, a hole that we feel can easily be filled up.

Volkswagen, Europe’s largest carmaker, had no comment on whether the German manufacturer would try to cancel the Suzuki-Nissan partnership, according to spokesman Michael Brendel. Yokohama-based Nissan hopes the supply deal will continue and doesn’t have the volume or vehicle designs to make European city cars profitably itself, Dodge said.

Nissan is unlikely to abandon the city-car category if the Suzuki supply ends, Dodge said in the Feb. 10 interview. “Affordable entry-level cars are going to become more relevant, and no big car company can afford to ignore that.”
Wolfsburg, Germany-based Volkswagen plans to make use of Suzuki’s small-car designs for its own future models and has drawn up 35 cooperative projects. Nissan currently buys 30,000 Pixos a year Nissan spokesman Gilles Gautherot said.

The best solution for Nissan would be to develop cars together (with Renault), especially in this segment. Nissan can share the Renault Twingo’s platform and develop its own car. It will take time and resources but with readymade suppliers and platform in the form of Twingo available to Nissan, it wouldn’t take much time to make their own version and put it on sale. It is a better option than trying other manufacturers. Nissan have the jackpot right in their backyard.

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