After nine long years, the Japanese automaker, Nissan Motor Co. announced discontinuing the Datsun brand in India. The news of the brand shutting its operations in the country came almost a decade later after the company kicked off the marque's global relaunch in the country.
After failing in its ambitious worldwide relaunch of the Datsun brand, Nissan decided to discontinue the brand in Russia and Indonesia as well as South Africa and India, which were marked as crucial markets targeting the entry-level vehicle sector.
Nissan said after confirming the move to discontinue the brand, "Production of Datsun Redi-GO has ceased at the Chennai plant (Renault Nissan Automotive India Private Ltd). Sales of the model still continue (till the stock lasts)."
The company had already stopped producing its two other models under the brand, entry-level small car Go and compact multi-purpose vehicle Go.
In its global transformation strategy, Nissan announced that “As part of Nissan’s global transformation strategy, Nissan is focusing on core models and segments that bring the most benefit to customers, dealer partners, and the business. In India, this includes the all-new, locally produced Nissan Magnite with over 100,000 customer orders to date,”.
Also, under the global transformation plan, Nissan will quit the Datsun business in Russia and simplify operations in various markets in the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) region. It also announced the stopping of manufacturing operations in Indonesia.
Datsun sold 0 vehicles in the entire country, as none of its three models - GO+, Redi-GO, and Go - could get a buyer. Similarly, the case with the models GO+ and G0 in February of this year. Redi-GO was the only entry-level model that managed to sell 239 units in the month of February which is amazingly a lower number for an A-segment hatchback.
