Car market leader Maruti Suzuki India is yet to strike a deal with its

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Japanese peer Nissan Motor for delivering small car A-Star. The company had got into an agreement with Nissan nearly three years ago to contract manufacture A-Star, which is yet to be finalised — making it difficult for the homegrown auto maker to meet its ambitious 200,000 sales target for the model.

A-Star is an export-oriented model from Maruti Suzuki’s stable and the company was hoping to sell 200,000 units of its hatch in the domestic and overseas markets put together. The company had targeted to sell 50,000 units of the car, which would be exclusively manufactured in India, in the domestic market while a similar number was to be sourced by Nissan Motors. It expected to sell the remaining 100,000 units of the model in the European markets. Nissan was to re-christen the A-Star as Pixo.

Maruti, at the time of A-Star’s launch in November last year, had said that it expected to finalise orders from Nissan by early 2009 but has failed to secure one till April.

“The number to be sold to Nissan is yet to be finalised as the orders from the Japanese company are still pending. We expect Nissan to give orders early next year,” a Maruti insider said. A Maruti spokesperson confirmed that the company was yet to get a definitive order from Nissan but refused to divulge any further details.

Nissan, like most of the automobile producers globally, has been severely impacted by the ongoing slowdown as demand for cars plummets. The company, in joint venture with its French partner Renault, was planning to infuse Rs 4,500 crore in India at Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Investments in the Chennai projects, however, have been curtailed since the economic downturn stifled demand.

Besides, Nissan is reviewing its joint investments with commercial vehicle maker Ashok Leyland. The two companies had signed three joint venture agreements to make light trucks for Indian and overseas markets. Nissan also has a tripartite joint venture with Renault and Pune-based two-wheeler maker Bajaj Auto to make an ultra low-cost car, to be pitted against the Tata Nano. The car is likely to be launched in India by 2011.