Nissan’s Datsun brand to launch third model

Nissan has announced plans to launch a new model under its Datsun brand, landing below the already compact Datsun GO in the product hierarchy.

Called the I2, the new Datsun hatchback will be likely take after the redi-GO concept shown in February of 2014. It will cost less than and measure smaller than the GO.

Conceived as an Indian car, design and engineering has originated in the south Asian country of 1.2 billion. According to Customs Daily, Production will likely be local as well, at Nissan’s Chennai plant in southern India, but Nissan plans to export it to neighboring developing nations as well.

The I2 will share a chassis with an upcoming Renault compact called the XBA. Both will be underpinned by what the company calls the CMF-A platform. Power comes from a 800cc gasoline engine capable of 50 hp. Both manual and automatic transmissions are expected to be available.

While the Renualt XBA will go on sale by the end of the year, the Datsun I2 will launch in 18 months.

Datsun was originally a Nissan brand used on its compact cars. In the US, all Nissans were sold as Datsuns between 1958 and 1982, when the Nissan name was globalized. Datsun was then revived in 2013 in Russia, Indonesia and India, as but has seen difficulty in the market due to safety concerns and tough competition.