Renault Kwid hits 1.5 lakh bookings in less than a year

The Kwid hatchback from Renault was introduced as the company’s entry-level model in India way back in September last year. In less than a year, the automaker claims to have received bookings for around 1.5 lakh units of the Kwid hatchback. The orders have helped the company witness a raise in its market share by 2.3 points to 3.8 per cent.  

In India, the Renault sales for the first half of this year stood at about 61,895 units. While in Africa, Middle-East region and India, Renault witnessed 38.2 per cent rise at 2,08,690 units in the first half of the year as against the older 1,51,041 units sold in the corresponding period last year. Speaking about it, Thierry Koskas, Groupe Renault Executive Committee member and Executive Vice President (Sales and Marketing) said, “Our market share grew across all regions, with particularly strong momentum in Europe and the Africa Middle-East India area.”

Recently, Renault had increased Kwid’s production capacity to about 10,000 units by starting a third shift, which will also address the growing demand for the vehicle. Currently, the Renault Kwid comes with a 799cc three-cylinder petrol engine which generates 53bhp at 5,678rpm and a peak torque of 72Nm at 4,386rpm. Mated to a five-speed manual gearbox, the vehicle claims to return a fuel efficiency figure of 25.17kmpl. The entry-level model from Renault competes with Maruti Suzuki’s Alto and Hyundai Eon in India.