Japanese automotive major Nissan on Saturday hinted at the launch of Terrano, its compact sports utility vehicle shortly before September.

The Terrano will be in the Renault Duster league. Nissan and Renault joint venture share several platforms including the one that features Duster and Terrano.

Launching Nissan’s sporty Micra Active and premium New Micra in Hyderabad today, Nissan said that the year will see several important launches including Terrano and a small car under the Datsun brand. The company is also launching a refreshed utility vehicle Evalia soon.

Addressing a press conference to introduce the new generation Micra range of cars, Sunil Maddala, Vice President, sales and customer relations, Hoover India, the sales arm of Nissan, said that the new Micra will offer complete package of performance and safety with its excellent value proposition.

While the Active will be pitted in the segment of Ford Figo, i10 and Beat, the New Micra seeks to compete with Swift, i20, Polo among others. The company sees the continuous variable transmission model of the car appealing to customers commuting in the busy traffic conditions with its driving comfort and fuel efficiency. It states that it will give about 19.34 km versus 18.44 for manual transmission.

The company expects to garner sales volume of about 2,500 to 3,000 Micras per month verses about 1,000 cars it is currently averaging in the domestic market.

The Active range starts at Rs 3.56 lakh ex-showroom and the new Micra range from Rs 4.88 lakh.

>rishikumar.vundi@thehindu.co.in