The company has also planned to export components worth $100 million out of India to its global manufacturing facilities and reiterated its plans to double production capacity from its plant in Chennai to 400,000 per year.

“This fiscal year we have a very aggressive plan to even triple sales which will be reaching about 40,000. Sunny will make a big contribution,” Kiminobu Tokuyama, managing director of Nissan Motor India, said at the unveiling of its Sunny mid-sized sedan.

The company aims to launch the model by October this year, Tokuyama said, adding that the company is on track to open 100 dealerships by the end of 2012 from 40 dealerships nationwide currently.

Nissan Motor India’s sales in July rose 59 percent to 1,593 vehicles, driven by sales of its Micra hatchback, and it sold about 13,000 cars in the last fiscal year that ended in March.

Ford Motor Co. said recently it plans to build a $900 million production plant in India, doubling its investment in the country, as the US carmaker seeks to catch up with rivals in the second-fastest growing auto market in the world.

Foreign car makers have been making inroads into the local market and are increasingly using India as a hub to make and export small cars.