Duster swishes past Scorpio in SUV scramble

The sales momentum is expected to continue for Renault in the coming months, say company officials

Three years after French automobile maker Renault broke ties with home-grown utility vehicle giant Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M), its Duster has dethroned the latter's Scorpio to become India's largest selling urban sports utility vehicle (SUV).

The five-seater compact Renault Duster sold more units than the Scorpio in March. The Duster, launched last July, however, is yet to complete a full year in the market.

Sources say, the Scorpio clocked sales of around 4,700 units in March against a little more than 6,300 units of the Duster. The momentum is expected to continue for Renault in the coming months, say company officials, even as it remains the largest selling product for the company, contributing over 80 per cent of its sales.

Sumit Sawhney, executive director, marketing and sales, Renault India, said: "The Duster is a very well accepted product in the market. This gives us the confidence for a better performance. We have made additions to the product which has helped us achieve incremental volumes".

Scorpio sales have been under pressure since the launch of the Duster. Last year, Mahindra Scorpio saw sales of 50,168 units, recording a fall of 1.3 per cent against the 50,844 units sold in the previous year.

M&M refused to comment for this story. The Scorpio was launched by M&M in 2002. The model paved the way for M&M scripting its turnaround from being just a tractor manufacturer to a stylish urban SUV producer.

The Duster's rise in sales comes despite the French company's premium price tag. While the entry level Mahindra Scorpio costs Rs 7.54 lakh, the Duster comes at Rs 8.94 lakh for the entry variant (both prices ex-showroom Mumbai for diesel model).

Further, Renault's sales touch points stand at 100 in India while that of Mahindra stands at 250 for the Scorpio. With sales of 39,188 units last financial year and an average of 5,500 units a month, the Duster is set to clock sales in excess of 60,000 units this year, remaining at the top of the SUV pie, say analysts.

M&M, however, is not loosing its grip over the segment as yet. Work on an all-new Scorpio has been happening for the last several months and the company hopes to launch the vehicle in 2015. The new Scorpio is expected to retain the brand characteristics of the existing model, while also being extra rugged in styling, according to M&M officials.

Mahindra shared a joint venture company with Renault till April 2010 after which the Mumbai-based company bought the French company's stake. The JV made the Logan sedan (now renamed Verito) from a plant in Nashik.

Renault produces the Duster from another joint venture company plant based in Chennai, shared with Nissan. Nissan is expected to launch its own variant of the SUV based on the Duster platform to cash in on the growing demand for SUVs in India. Last year, the utility vehicle segment recorded a jump of 52 per cent to 553,000 units, compared with 363,000 units sold in the previous year.