Datsun Teases New Budget Sedan for the Russian Market

It’s not every day that we get to talk about Renault-Nissan’s newly revived, economic sub-brand of old: Datsun.

Just as a quick refresher course, Nissan is re-launching the Datsun brand to target emerging automotive markets. India, Indonesia and now Russia are all slated to get their own custom-designed Datsun vehicles. Russia, the newest addition to the list, will apparently get their very own exclusive. You can take a look at the initial sketch below:

As you can see, it’s a pretty unremarkable vehicle as far as aesthetics go. It doesn’t look bad, but it doesn’t look particularly great either. However, we can appreciate that it features a very clean aesthetic; if we had to choose between ‘clean and simple’ or ‘cluttered and over-the-top’, we’d certainly prefer the former.

So, what did Nissan/Datsun have to say about their new entry into the Russian market?  Naturally, they didn’t offer much in the way of specifics, but they did tell us that the concept “follows the brand’s common global philosophy of offering customers and engaging driving experience, peace of mind ownership and accessibility at the right and transparent price, with a competitive Total Cost of Ownership.”

In other words, Datsun wants to offer Russian drivers a car that does exactly what it says on the box.

The announcement offers more than just a new sedan for the rising Japanese automaker, though. In addition to the car itself, the announcement officially marks the launch of the new Datsun Russia website, www.datsun.ru. Interested individuals will be able to watch the new Datsun sedan’s official unveiling on April 4 via the website, and can enjoy a nicely stylized countdown until then.

If you’d like to get a more interesting look at the new, unnamed Datsun sedan, be sure to check out the catchy video sketch below

As we said, you can expect to see the Russian Datsun make its official debut at the beginning of next month. As far as pricing, you can expect the new sedan to fall in under 400,000 rubles (~$11,000), as Datsun has already stated their desire to target that segment of the Russian auto market.

The last time we heard anything about the budget-friendly automaker was at the beginning of the year when they unveiled their first-ever concept car since the brand’s revival – the Redi-GO Concept (pictured below).

As you can see, Datsun certainly has a ‘look’ that they’re sticking with, which makes sense since all of their cars are still being designed in Japan (even if they’re launched elsewhere). You can expect the Redi-GO hatchback to make it to production by the end of the year in India. Until then, stay tuned for more Datsun jewels… Even if you’re not going to be directly impacted by any of these cars for emerging markets, you can rest assured that Nissan will be taking lessons learned from Datsun and eventually applying them to their own lineup.