Ratan Tata's dream project Nano contributed to Renault's success, says CEO

Kwid has put Renault on strong foot in India, said Ghosn

Carlos Ghosn, chairman and CEO of French auto maker Renault has said that Renault has started making money in India after selling 1,00,000 Kwids.

 

Kwid is a compact hatch-back built on the sketch of cars such as Tata Nano and Maruti Suzuki Alto. The Renault Kwid is a second car, after Duster, from the stable of Renault to achieve this milestone. Duster's total sales in India has crossed over 1.50 lakh units.

 

Since its launch, Kwid sales crossed 1.30 lakh units. Last month the company had sold around 9,600 units. In small cities Kwid continues to be the number one selling car from Renault.

 

Ghosn said Kwid has put Renault on strong foot in India.

 

“The company initially struggled because it was the new plant and a new car, so when you have so much innovation accommodated, you struggle with profitability,” he added.

 

Kwid now caters to the needs of three different customer types, with a scope of options to suit specific lifestyles. The 0.8 litre for the customer who seeks a superior package with the best fuel efficiency. The 1.0 litre MT for the customer who seeks a superior package along with more performance. The 1.0 Litre AMT for the customer who seeks a superior package with more Performance and greater convenience.

 

Design element also helped the car as customers were looking for a car which is slightly taller with a tinge of sporty element built into it, which Kwid addressed.

 

Ghosn, who is impressed with India's frugal engineering, said that Ratan Tata's dream project Nano has contributed to Renault's success in India.

 

It may be noted Nissan's much expected low cost brand Datsun has not met with the success it was expecting.

 

On Datsun, Ghosn said: "We are not as successful with Datsun as we would have liked it to be but when you are in a long term strategy we don't expect success to come immediately."

 

Ghosn said that with the A-platform -- the second of the so-called common module family, or CMF, jointly developed by Renault and Nissan, a sort of modular manufacturing system for cars-- particularly with the Kwid and all the products that are going to follow that.  This platform will be open to Mitsubishi also.