Nissan to sell new Datsun car in India next month

GREATER NOIDA (Reuters) - Nissan Motor Co Ltd will start selling its resurrected Datsun brand in India next month, picking the world's sixth-largest auto market to debut the car targeted at emerging economies.

The Datsun Go hatchback is expected to cost less than 400,000 rupees, competing with inexpensive cars from Indian car market leader Maruti Suzuki Ltd and Hyundai Motor Co .

"Our plan is to launch Datsun Go in India in the second half of March," Nissan Motor's Corporate Vice President Vincent Cobee, who heads the Datsun business unit, told Reuters on Wednesday on the sidelines of the Indian auto show.

The Datsun Go will go on sale in Indonesia sometime in the spring this year, Cobee said, and then in Russia and South Africa before the end of the year.

Almost three decades after retiring the Datsun, Nissan said in 2012 that it would relaunch the brand.

Car sales in India are set to fall in the fiscal year to March, in what will be the second straight annual decline as slower economic growth and inflation keeps buyers at bay.

(Reporting by Aradhana Aravindan; Writing by Devidutta Tripathy; Editing by Miral Fahmy)