CHENNAI – In a ceremony attended by local dignitaries and members of Datsun’s senior management, the very first Go rolled off the production line in Oragadam today. The revitalised brand, launched only a few months ago, brought the all-new model to production in record time – a mere seven months elapsed from the emergence of the very first design sketches to the reveal of the production-ready model. Sales of the new car will begin in India in a few weeks.
The Go, a small hatchback that has been created for the emerging middle class in growing markets is being produced solely at the Renault Nissan Auto India Private Limited (RNAIPL) plant on the outskirts of Chennai, India – at least for now. Production for the Russian market will commence at an AvtoVaz plant in Russia later this year.
This same plant will, in all probability, be the the source of the Go models that will be imported to South Africa in the final quarter of 2014. Incidentally, the Renault Dusters that are sold in South Africa are also built in this factory.
With the current instability in the local motor industry’s labour sector it is unlikely that we will see Datsun models produced in SA any time soon, but that may change if the economic climate becomes more amenable. The head of Datsun Global, Vincent Cobee, Datsun would much rather start production in SA, at the existing facility in Rosslyn, rather than set-up a new plant elsewhere in Africa.
