Renault bets big on Fluence's diesel variants

Banking on the Gujarat's preference for diesel cars, French carmaker Renault is expecting 80-85 per cent of its sales of its newly launched sedan Fluence to come from the diesel variant in the state.

Nationally, the company expects 70 per cent of its sales to come from the diesel variant and 30 per cent from petrol models. "Gujarat is a very mature market for diesel cars, and hence we are expecting around 80-85 per cent of our net sales here to come from the diesel variant, while on an average we expect 70 per cent sales nationally to be of diesel models. In markets like Delhi, the proportion of diesel sales would be around 65 per cent.", said Len Curran, vice president, sales and marketing, Renault India

Marking a re-entry into the Indian market, after ending its partnership with Mahindra & Mahindra, Renault has priced the diesel variant of the car cheaper than its petrol variant. While the diesel variant costs around Rs 12.99 lakh,a high-end petrol variant would cost around Rs 14.4 lakh. Renault plans to touch a 100,000 cars sales mark in 2013, by when the company plans to offer at least five products.