When you enter into a joint venture with someone, it’s kind of important that you’re both on the same page. For one party to say one thing and the other party to say another could look a touch disorganized. Take Renault-Nissan-Bajaj. Renault-Nissan is adamant that their joint venture with the Indian maker would culminate in an ultra low cost car that would compete with the Tata Nano (which is on fire at the moment). Bajaj, on the other hand, is getting cold feet.
The Hindustan Times reports that Bajaj is seeing less and less merit in this ultra low-cost car project. “A car at a cost of less than Maruti 800 is not going to work,” said Rahul Bajaj, Chairman at Bajaj Auto Ltd. The Maruti 800 is a rebadged Suzuki Alto and one of the largest selling cars in the country.
Bajai has another market in mind: “This year, we are going to sell four million 2 & 3 wheelers together. So why should we focus only to sell 20,000 units of a car? It doesn’t make sense. Unless we can sell about 200,000 units per year, it will not be feasible.” You have to admit, he presents a good point.
