At the launch of the Renault Duster in Kerala yesterday, the company’s managing direct, Marc Nassif, divulged few more details about their plans for India. The French car maker aims to improve their sales to 30,000 units per annum by the end of this year, compared to mere 1,500 units sold last year. The targets look realistic with the Duster compact SUV and a new C-segment sedan, Scala, coming before Diwali.
Apart from above, Marc also disclosed Renault’s plans to launch a sub-Rs 4.5 lakh compact car in India. Although, no further details were provided at the launch function; we can guess few elementary details about the car based on Renault’s operations in India. Nissan-Renault jointly operate from the Chennai facility in India; their tie-up is global and hence they share platform, engine, other components and even sell almost exactly same cars (Nissan Micra and Renault Pulse).
Few months back, Nissan confirmed their plans to revive Datsun brand for developing markets, wherein they will sell low cost cars with Datsun badge – similar to Dacia badge used in Europe by Renault to sell cost-effective products. At the brand unveiling in Mumbai, Nissan confirmed that the first low cost car will be ready and revealed at the 2014 Auto Expo. While the Datsun car might be priced at around Rs 3 to 3.5 lakh, a premium version of the same is expected to be launched in India by Renault a few months later. This the same car that might also be sold in Europe as the Dacia Towny.
