By Mrinal Aha
Hinduja Group’s Defiance Technologies is into developing Nissan – India’s yet another small car after the Tata Group’s Nano. The Hinduja Group is also considering an alliance with one of Japan’s leading auto companies.
Defiance Technologies offers engineering services to both local and overseas clients. Defiance Technologies is concerned with aerospace, automotives etc. Though Defiance Technologies has a chunk of its business in India, it is connected to the overseas customers by virtue of its engineering services, like concept development, full spectrum CAE, prototyping and physical testing among others.
Defiance Technologies gives major importance to quality, which is why they have been doing business for more than 10 years now. Futuristic technologies are what DI looks for with solutions and quality.
Ashok Leyland, another company in the field of auto sector, has thousands of heavy-duty vehicles running on the roads today. The development of this small car is under their consideration as well. Now there is also news about Nissan-Ashok Leyland tie-up. However, these ideas are rubbished. According to the spokesperson of Ashok Leyland, they are just speculations and there should be nothing more to see into it.
To confirm the news, the spokesperson of Nissan India was contacted. He echoed the same thoughts of the spokesperson of Ashok Leyland. However, Nissan India’s spokesperson was not interested in commenting on the Nissan-Ashok Leyland tie-up.
In a press conference, Nissan India cleared the doubts, saying the company has not gone beyond the abstract phase. However, they said they were interested in potential and serious partners. Nissan India further said, they were still in search of the right partner and were actually in talks with Ashok Leyland as well. However, to put an end to the question mark, the spokesperson was quick to react that nothing was finalized.
If one can recall going further back in the past, the previous press conference that was held in March the same year, Nissan India had pointed out that they were, in fact, serious with a tie-up with Ashok Leyland. They wanted to develop a potential small car that could go global. The price tag was set to be around US$ 4500 to US $5000. That would be around Rs. 2,00,000 to Rs. 2,25,000 according to the Indian currency. Mr. Andy Palmer, the senior vice-president confirmed that no partner was finalized. However, chances are there that it could be Ashok Leyland.
