Nissan aims to double capacity of its Orgadam facility near Chennai from the current 2 lakh units to 4 lakh units by next year and has undertaken a study for the same, Economic Times said.

Nissan Motor India managing director Kiminobu Tokuyama said, “We do have a plan.We are studying it right now. We plan to increase the capacity to 4 lakh vehicles from the current 2 lakh units.”

The Japanese auto maker in a  joint-venture with France-based Renault had invested Rs 4,500 crore spread over a period of 7 years for the facility.

In July last year, the company had formally launched its first hatchback Micra manufactured at this facility. After unveiling Sunny, their second product from the facility, today, Tokuyama said they planned to introduce a series of models from here.

“Our plans to introduce Sunny’s diesel variant, marketing and distributor for Nissan vehicles in India, Hover Automotive, CEO Dinesh Jain said it would be introduced soon. “Yes, the diesel variant will be introduced in due course,” he said. Nissan has also set a target of retailing 40,000 units this fiscal and also plans to take dealership to 60 from 45 by March 2012.

“From there we will take it to 100 dealers by March 2013, covering 80% of country, Jain said. He also said the reports of Nissan proposing to pick-up stake in Hover Automotive are speculative. “It is a matter of speculation. We will continue to work together for the Indian market,” he said.

The Sunny is priced at Rs 4.78 lakh for the base variant and Rs 7.68 lakh for the top end one. Besides, Micra and Sunny, Nissan currently retails premium luxury sedan Teana and SUV X-Trail as completely built units in India. Nissan Motor Company Ltd is headquarted in Japan and is a multinational automaker.

Nissan became the second largest car manufacturer in 2011, surpassing Honda with Toyota still much the dominating first. The company also produces a range of luxury models branded as Infinti along producing its normal range of models.