A little bit of inspiration does not really hurt, does it? When most of the leading car manufacturers are running to the Indian automotive industry with their small car offerings, why should Renault be the one lagging behind?

Carlos Ghosn, the CEO of both Nissan Motor Corporation and Renault SA, recently announced that a small and cheap car would be launched for the Indian customers. Ghosn also said that they are looking at manufacturing a car as cheap as $3000 and this time again their partner of choice would be Mahindra and Mahindra. This super low-cost car will not be competing directly with the Logan, which is currently priced between Rs. 428,000 to Rs 547,000.

Ghosn said that Nissan and Renault are speeding up their negotiations with suppliers in India and are already in the process of analyzing all aspects of producing their super low price car. “If it makes sense, we’ll be ready to start it,” he said, but declined to give a timeframe.

And that’s not all. If they decide to go ahead with the manufacturing of their small car, they will be rolling out two cars from the same platform, one from the Renault and another from the Nissan stable. The upcoming cars are likely to sport trusted parts like the Nissan strut mount, engines and stylish accessories but will be made available at a much cheaper rate.

Ghosn wants to be prepared for any kind of surprises that may come from competitors launching small and cheap cars in India. He also said that though they have not finalized the deal yet their obvious choice would be Mahindra.

By the end of the year 2010, annual car sales in India are likely to double and reach an all-time high of two million, with small cars making almost two-third of the contribution. And that’s exactly the reason that major car manufactures are shifting the gear to small cars.