The growth of the Indian auto market has attracted the attention of a number of foreign owned auto manufacturers and also given prominence to a number of indigenous firms. This attention is expected only to grow as India’s automobile market is set to sell over six million vehicles annually by the year 2020.

In order to find their place in this growing market, companies like Bajaj Auto, Renault India, and Nissan are looking to develop the right products at the right price for Indian consumers.

Bajaj and Auto with Renault-Nissan have been working on developing a small car under their joint Ultra Low Cost project. Bajaj Auto and the alliance of Renault and Nissan signed an understanding in 2008 to develop and sell a ULC car that would cost less than Rs 2 lakh.

However, the project is not expected to hit the roads next year as it was originally planned. Instead, the project’s commercial launch date is being pushed back to the end of 2012.

According to Philippe Klein, the Executive Vice-President for product, planning and programs at Renault SA, “Renault’s vision is to bring sustainable mobility to customers at affordable costs. We are looking at several options in doing that, apart from the collaboration with Bajaj”.