Datsun- the upcoming budget brand of cars from Japanese auto maker Nissan, will make its world premiere on July 15th.
Datsun cars will be primarily targeted at emerging car markets like that of India, Indonesia, Russia and South Africa. It has by now become a well known fact that the first two Datsun cars are hatchbacks, which have been codenamed as the I2 and the K2 respectively. The K2 is being developed at Renault-Nissan’s Chennai technical facility.
The upcoming Datsun K2 is underpinned by the V platform, which is the same platform that underpins the Sunny, Micra and Note. In India, the Datsun K2 will be positioned below the upcoming low cost Micra and will rival the Chevrolet Beat, Hyundai Eon and Maruti Wagon R.
The K2 will also spawn out a 7 seat MPV at a later stage. The K2 MPV might debut at the 2014 Delhi Auto Expo early next year and would first be launched in Indonesian market.
The I2 hatchback is expected to be launched in third quarter of 2013. The I2 will battle it out against the very popular Maruti Suzuki Alto 800 and might emerge as the bread and butter model for Renault-Nissan India. Along with the K2, the I2 is being developed at Renault Nissan Technology & Business Centre, near Chennai, India.