A $3,000 Nissan is reported to be in the making but it will be only released in emerging market countries, not in the United States.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday that Nissan chief executive Carlos Ghosn wants to relaunch retro-brand Datsun with a price tag as low as $3,000 when it hits the road in 2014.
The $3,000 - $5,000 Nissan Datsun will not come with air bags and automatic transmissions but will be bare-bones in order to keep costs low.
Ghosn said the company was committed to offering six Datsun vehicles at a price range lower than all but a handful of smaller car makers in China and India specializing in mini autos. To cut costs, the company will source parts almost entirely from the country in which the finished product is to be made and sold.
"If you go to the US, it's not going to end up being $3,000," Ghosn told the paper in an article published Monday.
The Brazilian-born Ghosn said a future Datsun would be "modern and fresh" and had to appeal to buyers in developing markets because it would make "them feel good and is in their budget".
The Datsun was a big seller especially in the United States where its sporty, two-door hatchbacks became synonymous with fuel-efficiency during the 1970s oil crisis.
According to Fox News, the lowest price is nearly a third the price of its most inexpensive car, the $8,000 Tsuru compact sold in Mexico.
He portrayed the relaunch as much as a life's mission as a business strategy, with the goal of providing poorer populations a greater chance at car ownership. No major car company has yet figured out how to penetrate profitably the lowest price segment in emerging markets, even though these countries already make up nearly half of all global vehicle sales.
