ET reported that Renault and Nissan combine has decided to scale down its production plans in Chennai. The combine will now have one common assembly line instead of two production lines proposed earlier.

The report cited a company official as saying that “This is a short term alignment of the product ramp up. We are continuously evaluating the situation.”

Renault and Nissan Automotive India a 50 to 50 JV between Renault and Nissan. Initially, Mahindra & Mahindra was part of the 3 way venture, but it later pulled out as it did not find sufficient synergies in the project.

Renault and Nissan had performed the ground breaking ceremony for its Chennai plant in June 2008. The plant is expected to begin operations in 2010 and will have an annual production capacity of 400,000 units at an investment of INR 4,500 crore over a 6 to 7 year period.

In the recent past many auto majors have scaled down production and reduced investments due to the slowdown in the industry.