Renault aims to be seen in third spot in India

French car major Renault, which launched its first luxury sedan named Fluence in India recently, would launch three more models this year. Sudhir Rao, deputy country managing director, Renault India, said the company wants to be in the list of top three brands by 2015 in terms of “brand image, not in terms of value and volume.”

To achieve the target, the French car-maker is planning to introduce five models over the next 18 months. Renault along with its global partner Nissan signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Tamil Nadu government to set up a greenfield facility in 2008 at Oragadam, near Chennai. Of the planned investment of Rs 4,500 crore till 2015, the alliance has so far invested Rs 2,500 crore.

The plant is now fully operational with one assembly line and the second line will be installed soon, taking the total capacity of 400,000 cars per year. Renault is planning to assemble Fluence in completely knocked down (CKD) format.

On component sourcing from India, Rao said some of the major components include power steering, castings and forgings. It may be noted that Renault’s partner Nissan had put the value of sourced components at $40 million.