Nissan Aims for $3,000 Datsun Model

When Nissan Motor Corp. relaunches its Datsun brand in 2014, the company aims to offer cars for emerging markets at prices starting as low as $3,000, The Wall Street Journal reports.

CEO Carlos Ghosn tells the newspaper the project aims to create vehicles that are "modern and fresh" at less than half the price of Nissan's current lowest-cost model: the $8,000 Tsuru sold in Mexico.

Ghosn is convinced that ultra-low-priced cars are key to Nissan's goal of boosting its share of the global automotive market to 8% by 2016 from 6% today.

Nissan believes emerging markets, which currently account for 43% of industrywide vehicle sales, will generate 60% of global volume in 2017. With the right products, Ghosn declares, Datsun could capture at least one-third of those sales.

Attracting first-time car buyers in such markets means fundamentally rethinking the "rules" of automotive engineering. The Journal says Ghosn launched a secret project to develop a vehicle to meet that objective in 2007 after being stunned by Tata Motors Ltd.'s plan to produce the Nano sedan for about $2,500.

At the time, Ghosn had been told it would be impossible to produce even a no-frills car for less than about $6,000. As a member of the Datsun team tells the Journal, "We had to change the recipe, because the same recipe gives you the same dishes."

The result will be a lineup of Datsuns that lack standard items typical of cars in mature markets, including many safety features. Analysts tell the Journal that Nissan's biggest challenge will be to balance content with price and the ability to make a profit.

Nissan has not revealed details about its Datsun designs. But the Journal says the cars are likely to be powered by two-cylinder engines and sold only with manual transmissions. Other cost-cutting elements will be wind-up windows, little or no sound insulation, brakes with no power assist, a cheaper and noisier exhaust system and no more than one airbag.