Japanese car maker shall be launching its new SUV Murano in the Indian market. Murano is one of the most sophisticated and premium SUV models from Nissan. Nissan already has its X-Trail and Taena sedan in the premium car segment.

The new model shall be pitted against Toyota Prado, BMW X3, Mitsubishi Montero and Mercedes Benz M-class. It shall fall in the price band of Rs 30-40 lakh in India as its would be completely imported from Japan.

“We are planning to import the high-end Murano SUV from Japan after good market response to X-Trail in India. The SUV market here is very exciting and we are expanding our premium vehicles portfolio, before we venture into the high-volume small car segment through our Chennai facility,” said Neeraj Garg, Nissan company representative.

It was first launched in 2002 in United States as a crossover vehicle to complement Pathfinder. The previous model carries completely refreshed exteriors as well as interiors. However, it still maintains the same greenhouse and body frame. The new model is expected to be launched in multi-variants with 2WD and 4WD options with 6 airbags as standard equipments. It shall be available in India by the end of this year or by early 2009.