Ashwani Gupta in Mumbai on Wednesday. (Fotocorp)

Mumbai, March 21: You may or may not believe in reincarnation, but the Japanese auto maker Nissan Motor Company certainly does.

Nissan is reviving its heritage brand Datsun, and India will be one of three nations that will mid-wife its rebirth in 2014.

The marque, which debuted in 1932 in Japan and became hugely famous in the 70s, went into a deep decline before getting discontinued globally in 1981.

Nissan is now reviving the brand as it targets emerging markets to push global sales. Besides India, the Datsun will drive into Russia and Indonesia.

Nissan is planning to introduce two models in each of these three markets in 2014. It hopes to expand the number of products after three years.

Targeted at first-time buyers, the core offering for India will be priced below Rs 4 lakh, Ashwani Gupta, programme director of Nissan’s newly-created Datsun Business Unit, told reporters here today.

“We will offer our customers in India modern and spirited cars that they will be happy and proud to own — at an affordable price,” he added.

In India, the two models will roll out from Nissan’s plant in Chennai. Gupta and other senior officials at Nissan, however, did not provide further details on the planned product line-up, the investment or the number of dealerships, pointing out that all these aspects are now being worked upon.

The revival of the Datsun brand was announced by Carlos Ghosn, the CEO of Nissan, in Indonesia on Tuesday. He said the core idea was to bring products that are affordable, modern and fuel-efficient.

According to Gupta, Nissan will rely on its global expertise and apply them in tailoring Datsun vehicles to local market conditions, indicating that stress will be laid on indigenisation.

While auto analysts aver that it will be a challenge for Nissan to attain success with a heritage brand, senior officials at the Japanese company feel that affordability and other aspects will make it a winning proposition.

The revival of Datsun is part of Nissan’s “Power 88” business plan that aims to raise profit margins and worldwide market share to 8 per cent by fiscal 2016, up from 5.8 per cent in 2010-11.

The auto maker is betting on high growth markets, which according to it covers 60 per cent of the global industry volumes.