Renault India aims to launch one product a year till 2020 to hasten growth

CEO Sumit Sawhney says firm will be among top five by 2020 as against 7th position now

To accelerate growth in India, French automajor Renault is planning to bring down the launch time of new products in the country. The company, which launched three products in the past five years, is planning to launch one product each year till 2020.

Renault India's Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Sumit Sawhney said that the company is planning to launch one new car every year as part of its mid-term strategy. While the target during 2017 is to sustain the growth propelled by Kwid in the previous year, the firm is planning to be among the top five by 2020 as against seventh position now.

While declining to give any specific details on segments or products, he said the new products will create new segments, like what Kwid did. The company will be launching a new car by the end of 2017.

New products — which are integral part of Renault's strategy — will be manufactured with parts sourced domestically to suit Indian consumers taste. This is to ensure attractive car prices and competitive operating costs for all new Renault products, he added.

With three mainstream segment-defining products — Duster, Lodgy and Kwid — in India, Renault is working very hard to increase its market share, said Sawhney. Current market share of Renault in India is around 4.5 per cent and expects to touch five per cent as part of mid-term strategy.

Renault which has been in India for the last five years, is addressing only 30 per cent of the car market with Kwid, a small car, the compact SUV Duster and the MPV Lodgy.

Kwid is the only product which could make inroads in the top 10 league of best selling cars in India. It may be noted that only Maruti and Hyundai are the other two companies whose products are part of the league, despite India having over two dozen car companies. Interestingly, while most brands in the top 10 are nearly 10-20 years old, Kwid is around 1.5 years old.

As part of its strategy to grow sales in India, the company is planning to expand the network from the current 270 dealer outlets to around 320 outlets during the year. It would also increase the used car presence by expanding the used car outlets from the current 20 to 50 during this year.