Bouyed by the reception to its small car Kwid, Renault India has brought forward its timeline to gain 5% share of the Indian passenger car market by a year, and expects to achieve this by end-2016 instead of by end-2017 as earlier stated.

The optimism comes largely on the back Kwid sales which have helped is market share jump to 4.1% in the first quarter of 2016 against a share of 2% at the end of 2015. Nearly two-thirds of its total current sales currently come from the Kwid.

Renault India is also scheduled to begin exporting the car to Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Nepal next month, and then Brazil while also preparing to launch the car in 1-litre petrol engine and automatic transmission options in India later this year.

“We had announced that we will garner a market share of 5% by end of 2017, but will achieve this by the end of 2016,” Sumit Sawhney, Country CEO and MD, Renault India operations said.

Observing that the company’s strategy of beginning with a bridge (cross- badge) strategy then launching its own products has worked, he said, “The Duster has helped us build credibility while the Kwid and Lodgy are volume drivers.”

While last year, Renault’s sales stood at nearly 54,000 units, at present it is producing 2500 units of the Duster, 9500 units of the Kwid and around 700 units of the Lodgy per month from its plant in Chennai.

It is also on an expansion of its dealer network from 208 at the end of 2015 to 270 by end 2016, which is 30 more than the 240 it had earlier announced. All these 30 additional new outlets will be in the rural markets, where Renault currently has little presence, Sawhney said.

On new products, he said that the company has a good pipeline and beginning from 2017 would launch one new product in India every year for the next few years.

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