Nissan India is eyeing a bigger pie of India’s fast-growing SUV market. The automaker is said to be considering a luxury SUV for India that will take on the likes of the Toyota Fortuner and the Ford Endeavour. The Nissan Terra luxury SUV could be the one picked for the Indian market. The SUV will get a minor redesign to make it suitable for the Indian market. The Nissan Terra is already on sale in many South East Asian markets, and for the Indian market, it could get fresher looks. The updated looks for the India-spec Nissan Terra could be handled by the automaker’s design studio based out of Chennai.
Meanwhile, Alfonso Albaisa, Executive Design Director, Nissan Group, said,
Right now we are focused on the Kicks and really bringing this SUV into the market and seeing how that goes. And with electrification. And then there are requests about bigger cars than that and that’s been our focus too. But I am not currently able to discuss all of that.
The Nissan Terra that is sold in South East Asia uses a rugged ladder frame chassis, and is a 7 seater. It is powered by a 2.5 litre turbocharged diesel engine with 188 Bhp of peak power and 450 Nm of peak torque. Gearbox options with this engine include a 6-speed manual and a 7-speed torque-converter automatic. The same configuration is expected on the India-spec Terra considering the fact that the luxury SUV will be imported into the country through the completely knocked down (CKD) kit route. The only changes to the Terra for the Indian market are likely to be stylistic bits.
As for pricing, the Nissan Terra should sit in the Toyota Fortuner territory, which means a starting price tag of about Rs. 25 lakhs. In the past, Nissan has sold a luxury SUV in India in the form of the X-Trail. Imported as a completely built unit, the X-Trail formed a part of Nissan’s top-down approach for the Indian market. The SUV never really took off thanks to its high price but was meant mainly to be a presence marker for the brand. With the Terra though, Nissan will be looking to wrest market share from the Fortuner and the Endeavour.
Via NDTVAuto
Also Read: All-new Hyundai Santro: Buyers to opt for AMT on 3 out of 10 cars says CEO