The car is likely to intensify competition in the popular small car category and will compete with cars such as Maruti Suzuki's Alto 800 and Hyundai's Eon.

Japanese auto maker Nissan, on Wednesday, launched the Datsun brand in India with the first offering 'GO' priced between Rs.3.12 lakh and Rs.3.69 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi).

The car is likely to intensify competition in the popular small car category and will compete with cars such as Maruti Suzuki's Alto 800 and Hyundai's Eon.

“The Indian car market is very competitive and with Datsun we are entering a segment which we can't address with the Nissan brand. We expect the Datsun brand to contribute half to one-third of Nissan's sales in India," Nissan Motor India MD and CEO Kenichiro Yomura said.

The company will launch three models under the Datsun brand by FY'16 and has already announced that the GO+ as the second model to be launched.

The cars launched under the Datsun brand will be aimed at the first-time car buyers. In this segment, the Alto 800 is priced between Rs. 2.37 lakh and Rs. 3.52 lakh, Alto K10 is priced between Rs. 3.15 lakh and Rs. 3.31 lakh and Hyundai's Eon is priced between Rs. 2.83 lakh and Rs. 3.85 lakh (all prices ex-showroom Delhi).

Datsun GO is a five-door front-wheel drive and comes with a 1.2 litre engine with a five speed manual transmission. The car is being manufactured at the Oragadam plant, a joint venture between Nissan and France-based automaker Renault. Both the companies have invested about Rs. 4,400 crore.

The three variants of the car are priced at Rs. 3.12 lakh, Rs. 3.46 lakh and Rs. 3.7 lakh respectively (all prices ex-showroom Delhi).

Datsun GO, which claims a fuel efficiency of 20.64 km per litre, comes with various features including electronic power steering, front power windows and mobile docking station.