New Nissan Pulsar sedan for India?

  • May 28, 2014
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Nissan needs a D-segment sedan. It could either sell a rebadged Fluence or foray with its own all-new offering, the Pulsar, albeit in sedan form. We believe it will be the latter

Nissan Pulsar hatchback

Nissan’s next launch is a sedan. But, before you get overly excited about it being all-new and revolutionary, well, it isn’t. It is, in fact, the facelift of the Sunny. The good news is an all-new sedan is very much on the cards as well. It will compete in the D-segment; a segment that already has the popular Toyota Corolla, Chevrolet Cruze and the Hyundai Elantra. But, our sources reveal, it won’t be a rebadged Renault Fluence as it had been reported earlier. Nissan will launch its own car; a car that has just been showcased to the world. It is called the Pulsar internationally, but in India, it might just be called something else because Bajaj has already made this name its own, and how. And the Pulsar for India will be a sedan not the hatchback just unveiled.

Back to the new sedan, the Pulsar will mark Nissan’s foray into the D-segment. It’s a product category that is currently struggling, though. So, why would Nissan want to step into a segment that’s not really doing well? Simple, because it needs to expand its presence in India. And though the simpler route would have been to sell the rebadged Fluence, Nissan’s experience with the Terrano must have convinced the Japanese company otherwise.

Nissan currently has the Datsun Go in the entry-level sphere, the Micra in the compact class and the Sunny in the C-segment sedan class. It also has the Terrano in the burgeoning SUV segment but the latter, as we know, isn’t doing all that well. Since, it is essentially a rebadged Renault Duster it must cost more than the Renault. For that extra price, all one gets though, is better looks. Not enough really to entice buyers.  Moreover, Nissan can’t make any changes to the Terrano unless approved by Renault for it is the latter’s car.

Nissan Pulsar

This experience - and the limitation it comes with - clearly has Nissan looking at its own platforms moving forward. And, it is looking at the compact SUV class with intent too, waiting patiently to launch another SUV to co-exist with the Terrano. But, it also needs an executive sedan. It’s not a segment that’s on fire right now, but as the buying sentiment improves, the D-segment is bound to pick up. Why else would Toyota be launching the new Corolla; Chevrolet, the new Cruze; and Volkswagen, the Jetta update?

The Nissan Pulsar sedan will measure around 4.6 metres and will sit on a wheelbase of 2.7 metres meeting the class benchmark for space easily. It will have a reasonably large boot too. The Pulsar, which isn’t based on the CMF or Common Module Family as thought earlier, will use the extended Micra platform which also underpins the Terrano. And, it will be sold with petrol and diesel engines. It will come with the proven 1.5-litre diesel developing 110PS of max power and a 1.6-litre turbocharged  petrol engine developing a little short of 200PS. The petrol engine will be mated to both a manual and an automatic transmission.

So when can we expect to see the Pulsar sedan on Indian roads? Mostly in early 2015 would be our bet.

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