Nissan, the parent company of Datsun, is rumored to be re-birthing the Japanese automotive brand in an affordable electric car version that targets several markets in developing countries.
A Nissan source told Automotive News on Wednesday that they have an option still under discussion, namely to make the Datsun an electric car for emerging markets.
The news comes after Nissan last month announced that it was discontinuing Datsun operations in India, which is only nine years old since the brand was revived in India in 2013.
The discontinuation of the Datsun brand in India is not surprising, as Nissan as the parent company of Datsun has closed Datsun operations in Russia and Indonesia in 2020.
In addition, Nissan has also not announced the next steps regarding the fate of the Datsun brand, which is famous for its entry-level Datsun Go and Small-MPV Datsun Go+ models. Instead, the manufacturer has stated that they are currently focusing on their own brand, namely Nissan.
“As part of Nissan's global transformation strategy, Nissan is focusing on the core models and segments that provide the most benefit to customers, dealer partners and businesses,” the source told Automotive News.
Nevertheless, the opportunity to regenerate the Datsun as an electric car remains open thanks to Nissan's partnership with Renault and Mitsubishi.
One of the main focuses in their alliance is to co-invest in electric vehicle architecture by preparing 35 new electric models across all its brands (including Infiniti and Dacia) by 2030.
The main vehicle announced in the alliance's presentation is the successor to the electric Nissan Micra which uses the base of the Renault 5. So, it is not impossible that Nissan will give Datsun the platform to release an electric car at an affordable price.
The Nissan Micra “will be designed by Nissan, engineered and manufactured by Renault using our new [CMF B-EV] platform, maximizing the use of alliance assets while maintaining its Nissan aspect,” according to Nissan COO Ashwani Gupta.
Datsun has operated in India, Indonesia and Russia. They are also exploring emerging markets in Kazakhstan, South Africa, Belarus and Nepal.
