What you see here is a rendering, a digital sketch of what the new Datsun small car from Nissan could look like when it is unveiled later this year. The rendering has been specially created using design cues gleaned from the shape as observed from the camouflaged test car and based on inputs derived from various meetings that we have had with Nissan officials. It is only indicative of the front design of the new Datsun and is not meant to be the final word on how the production version will look like.

Nissan’s product strategy for Datsun will finally unravel within the next couple of months when the first small car from the brand will be unveiled.

Made for India

This rendering is a teaser exclusively from Smartbuy, to give you an idea about how the new car could turn out to be. Made exclusively for India, this new Datsun hatch will attempt to rewrite Nissan’s story of becoming a mass-market car brand in India. The initial pointers were of course, the fact that it will be built on a new platform and not the V-platform on which the Micra and Sunny are based. However, it will share parts with the Micra and will be priced below the Rs 4 lakhs mark.

Nissan has set up a crack team of designers, engineers and officials culled from it own resources to head the operations for Datsun. And based on the fact that the new brand’s vehicles are going to be extremely global and diverse, the team too has been chosen from various geographies, with diverse influences. That of course, also means that there are a few people from the Indian operations who have moved into the Datsun team. The new car is already under advanced stages of testing and validation. 

One thing that Nissan won’t be doing apparently is to carry forward the once famous naming convention of erstwhile Datsun cars. Some of them were taken over by Nissan when the move from Datsun to Nissan happened about three decades ago. 

From the rendering it quite clear that Nissan has chosen to give the new hatch quite an aggressive front, especially with the new hexagonal bonnet grille and honeycomb design mesh. The headlamps are likely to be large and wrapped around the edges. Together, these elements and a large airdam in the bumper will give the Datsun hatch quite a modern front look. The bumpers at the front and the rear could feature a three-stage construction to make sure that repair and replacements won’t be expensive. From the camouflaged test mule that we saw at the company’s test facilities in Kanagawa prefecture in Japan, it seems likely that the Datsun hatch will have a class-leading wheelbase in the sub-Rs 4-lakhs segment. 

The wheels have been pushed to the extremes and there is almost no overhang at the rear and only minimal overhang at the front. The rear design would also feature a wide, almost flat rear glass. The bottom half of the hatch door bulges out to free more space inside the boot. It should also have a low loading height, with the hatch door cutting deep into the rear fender.

On the static suspension test that the car was being put through, it was also obvious that Nissan is making sure that the new Datsun hatch can handle the worst that Indian roads can throw at it. The car was also being tested with Indian tyres. Our guess is that the rims will be 14-inch and the tyres could feature a 165/70 aspect ratio just like in the Micra.

The Datsun small car’s interior is likely to be fairly Spartan in terms of features, though it may not be found wanting in terms of storage and overall fit and finish quality. Material quality will inevitably stay within the price segment parameters. There could be more parts here that you will be able to identify as shared parts from the Micra.

Overall, a cab-forward, partly tall-boy design will also enable a good seat position for the driver. Visibility is also likely to be good with a large windscreen and lot of glass area all around. The outside rear view mirror is likely to find a unique raised position on the A-pillar and slightly above the shoulder line, to reduce the risk of nicks and scratches on crowded Indian roads.

Petrol first

The new Datsun hatch will be launched only with a petrol powertrain initially. Targeted primarily at cars like the Maruti Suzuki new Alto 800, Hyundai Eon and the Chevy Spark, we are guessing that the Datsun hatch will possibly be launched with a 3-cylinder engine in the one-litre class. Nissan already has the HR10 engine, which is the smaller cousin to the HR12 engine in the current Micra.

The engine could also be a reworked sub-one-litre class unit from one of Nissan’s Japanese hatches. The India-spec Datsun engine is likely to be paired with a 5-speed manual gearbox, and this could be shared with the Micra. We are also guessing that power assisted steering in the new Datsun will be optional.

There is a lot of excitement in Nissan’s headquarters about the new Datsun small car. India being the first country where the Datsun brand is going to be reintroduced means that a number of eyes around the globe are going to be focusing on response for the Indian model. We think that Nissan is dead serious about cracking the ‘Price Vs Value Vs Quality’ equation for its Datsun model.

muralidhar.s@thehindu.co.in