Outside the country, Nissan might be cutting 9,000 jobs and reducing production by 20 per cent in line with its announcement last month. But in India, the Japanese automaker plans to go ahead in full steam, adding 600 more in headcount to accommodate a third shift in its Chennai plant.
According to Nissan India Operations President Frank Torres, the company is on track to turn its fortunes around in the country. “Nissan is betting big on India,” said Torres, “The plans [for India] remain intact despite this global turbulence.”
Torres also said that in the current fiscal 2024-2025, Nissan India expects a 45 per cent jump in total sales growth, hitting 1.05 lakh units with hopes pinned on the latest update to the compact SUV, Magnite.
The senior official assured that despite global perception due to the November cost-cutting measures across other territories, Nissan in India is looking to grow its production. “We just included almost 600 new employments in our manufacturing plant in Chennai,” Torres added.
The latest upgrade in headcount to the Chennai plants was to expand production with “two new models”, said the Nissan official. “We don’t forecast that the impact will be in India because our plans remain untouched.”
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In July this year, Nissan’s India unit said they plan to launch at least five new models in the coming 30 months to compete in a crowded and highly competitive car market, setting a target of 1 lakh units each for its domestic and export volumes by the end of fiscal 2026—tripling its 2023 volumes.
According to Torres, the third shift at the Chennai plant began a few weeks ago. “It means that we have grown one full new shift. And then also moving forward towards 2026, where we will need to put our manufacturing plant at full capacity with both lines at three shifts. As of today, we are modifying one of them for the new models,” he added.
If Nissan India achieves its volume target in new models by 2026-end, the Chennai plant’s utilisation will jump to more than 80 per cent. This would then require more jobs in the plant than the current headcount, said Torres.
“Increasing headcount is part of our commitment,” he added, “We have committed to the Tamil Nadu government to grow our headcount next year based on the new investments,” stating the support from the state government.
The unit said that the global Renault-Nissan entity is looking to create more than 2,000 jobs across manufacturing and R&D, which is in line with their USD 600 million investment plan announced a year ago.
“Our plans remain intact, and our plans for the new models remain untouched,” Torres assured. For the fiscal FY 2024-2025, Nissan India looks to export more than 74,200 units and domestic sales to grow by 4 per cent to 31,155 units.
