Reference Auto

Despite not having much presence in the Indian market, French automaker and sister concern of Nissan, Renault, is charting an ambitious growth plan, and in the latest move, it has launched the SUV Duster for as low as Rs 7 lakh (it almost comes for a steal!).

Renault calls this an introductory offer, and as per the company’s plan, the top model will come for Rs 11.29 lakh, which indicates that by keeping the prices low, Renault wants to play the volume card, that is, give a fillip to volumes in India.

Renault is leaving nothing to chance and is determined to see its Duster SUV do well. For the purpose, it has introduced both petrol and diesel versions of the Duster.

The petrol variant will be propelled by a 1.6-litre engine and be available for between Rs 7.19 lakh and Rs 8.19 lakh. It offers 85 PS of power and 200 Nm of torque.

The diesel version will have a 1.5-litre engine and the price range is between Rs 7.99 lakh and Rs 11.29 lakh. This variant belts out a satisfactory 110 PS of power and 248 Nm of torque.

Only the top model of the diesel version comes with six gears. The remaining versions of the Renault Duster SUV have five gears.

During the launch, Renault India managing director Marc Nassif had said, “This year, we are targeting to sell around 20 times more vehicles than what we sold last year. Duster is one of the five products that we will roll out in India.”

Renault had sold 1,500 vehicles last year and even if the company achieves a 10-fold rise in sales, it would be doing a commendable job.

The judicious pricing of the Duster has seen many make a beeline for the SUV. Nassif didn’t reveal the sales target of the Duster, but added that about 3,500-4,000 bookings have already been made in the country.

If that is anything to go by, the Duster will soon become one of the SUVs to reckon with in India and could be a major contender to the likes of Mahindra and Mahindra’s Scorpio and Tata Motor’s Safari.

With the Duster SUV, Renault has achieved 60 per cent localisation and hopes to ramp it up to 80 per cent within a year, Nassif said.

Nassif also revealed that the Duster would be exported to the UK from the Chennai plant by this year itself. “Our Chennai plant will be the only unit in the world which will supply the Duster to markets abroad,” he said.

Renault, in order to achieve its target of a 20-fold rise in sales, will have to go on an aggressive brand-building exercise. But even then, this target could be a tad ambitious.

However, with the Duster coming for a steal and with a slew of launches in the pipeline (provided prices are judicious too), Renault could become a game-changer in the Indian market in the medium term.