Nissan

Jonga

The Jonga is an Indian built second generation Nissan Patrol formerly used by the Indian Army. Jonga is an acronym for Jabalpur Ordnance aNd Guncarriage Assembly, manufactured by the Vehicle Factory Jabalpur. They were produced for the Indian Army under an exclusive license granted by Nissan in 1965. The vehicle entered service in 1969 and production ceased in 1999. It served as one of the Indian Army's jeeps until it was phased out and replaced mostly by the Mahindra MM540 jeep.

Text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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History

The Indian Army showed an interest at the Nissan Patrol P60 and the Nissan 4W73 (also called the Nissan Carrier) in the 1960s. A decision was made to prioritize the eventual production of the jeeps in the aftermath of the Sino-Indian War. The factory manufacturing the Jonga was commissioned for a cost of Rs. 12.06 crores by November 1965. The costs were revised again twice; firstly, in December 1970 for Rs. 21.53 crores and again in January 1973 for Rs. 26.84 crores. The first Jongas made by VFJ were produced in 1969 for military use. A civilian variant of the Jonga was later made in 1996. In 1999, the production of the Jonga stopped with 100 of them sold to civilians. In 2013, it was reported that 20,000 Jongas were still in service with the Indian military. It also has reported sales of 2,000 Jongas to the state governments of Kerala, and Jammu and Kashmir.

Design

While the first 3500 vehicles were directly imported from Japan during the Sino-Indian War (these were the earlier 62-64 Nissan P60, identified by a 3-slot air vent on the windscreen, as well as 2-piece doors. The engine used a Hitachi Carburetor, which had a higher power rating, producing 145Hp and 31.7Kgm of Torque, and the distributor was water sealed too, which allowed a high fording depth of 2.5 feet, compared the Jonga manufactured by VFJ, which inturn was based on the later 64-66 Nissan Patrol P60, identified by a 2-piece air vent on the windscreen, which the single piece doors of the 64-66 patrol were replaced with a 2-piece door, with the lower section similar to the earlier 62-64 Nissan Patrol, but instead of the pressed steel top half of the earlier doors, it used a simple round bar metal frame, and it lacked the glass too, instead replaced with a canvas cover. The earlier Jonga still used a Hitachi carburetor and a water-sealed distributor, and therefore had a similar power rating to the Nissan Patrol. However, as the indigenous content was increased, the distributor was replaced with a locally sourced unit which lacked the water-sealing of the earlier distributor, therefore fording depth dropped down to 17 inches, while the carburetor was replaced with a locally manufactured Solex unit, abruptly bringing down power rating from 145Hp to 110Hp, and Torque to 27.5kgm. The French sourced, but locally license manufactured Solex Carburetor - which was quite similar to the unit that replaced the Carter unit on Mahindra license manufactured Willys Jeep, and therefore suffered from similar design flaws as the Jeep unit. This carburetor had a smaller venturi bore compared to the Hitachi carburetor of the original Patrols, the biggest side effect of which was the powe

Variants

The Jonga was known to be used as a general purpose vehicle, ambulance, gun carrier for recoilless rifles, recon and patrol vehicle. == References ==

Sections adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0); text is shortened. Read the full article for the complete history and citations.

More photos

Sources

Wikidata — https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6275482CC0 1.0 · retrieved 2026-10-01
Wikipedia — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JongaCC BY-SA 4.0 · Text © Wikipedia contributors; revision 1373935288 · retrieved 2026-10-01
Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WLUS_(21).jpgCC BY-SA 4.0 · Photo: Vijay Tiwari09 · retrieved 2026-10-01
Car Model Index — https://models.autoculturesociety.com/Compiled record. Sources that do not permit reuse are not copied; this index is credited instead.