Taking inspiration from Tata Nano, Renault-Nissan alliance developed the very successful Kwid model that has turned Renault’s fortune in India. Currently on top of its game, Renault is planning to expand the Kwid range. The company recently launched heavily accessorized Climber edition with new styling updates in manual and AMT options.
Renault first ventured in India with Logan sedan, which is now sold under Verito nameplate by Mahindra. In 2011, it made a comeback and took around four years to finally witness unprecedented success with Kwid. Built on Renault-Nissan’s A-platform, Kwid has already surpassed 1.30 lakh units sales mark in India within 2.5 years of its launch. Hinting at building more products on Renault-Nissan’s CMF-A or A-platform, Carlos Ghosn, Chairman, Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi told in an interview to Autocar India that the platform is open to Mitsubishi and Nissan could also use it for its future products.
Considering that Indian market is growing at a fast pace despite all the complexities it offers, it is on every carmaker’s radar. Ghosh, who lately relinquished from the post of CEO in Nissan will now focus on Renault-Nissan Alliance that recently acquired Mitsubishi Motors. Read – New-generation Renault Duster (7-Seater) Coming This Year
This implicates a new product strategy for Mitsubishi’s that currently offers Pajero in India. It is expected that Lancer nameplate could also make a return and contemplating the current demand for SUVs, we would expect Mitsubishi to add more SUVs to its line-up. Though, there is yet no hint as to when these plans will be materialized, but hopefully we will see more from Mitsubishi in future. Admitting to the significance of a good product in India, he also gave inkling of a Nissan product based on CMF-A platform in future.
Coming back to Renault Kwid, the company will keep improving the product based on customers’ feedback not only for the Indian market but also for other emerging markets like Brazil where Renault will launch a version of Kwid in coming months. Talking about the CMF-B platform, Renault may not centre products on CMF-B platform; hence we get to see more of the A-platform models.
With almost 1.30 lakh units of Kwid sold in 2.5 years, Renault is currently the number one European brand in India and looks determined to further tighten its grip on the domestic market.
