Renault seeks to double India sales with Triber on Aug 28, SUV next year

Triber will be a sub-4-meter car with three rows and a seating capacity of up to seven

French car maker Renault is set to launch its new car Triber on August 28, and is also planning to launch an SUV by next year. Both cars would help the company double its market share in the Indian passenger car market in the next three years, a senior company official said.

Renault India's country CEO & Managing Director Venkatram Mamillapalle said the product will not be positioned as an MPV, but will constitute a new segment. Production has already begun at the company's manufacturing unit near Chennai, which it shares with Nissan. It will be a sub-4-meter car with three rows and a seating capacity of up to seven.

The company is targeting 7,000-plus units a month to start with and expects Triber to be more successful than Duster, which helped Renault make good inroads along with Kwid.

While Mamillapalle didn't share the pricing of the new car, he said the vehicle's USP was affordability. In order make Triber cost competitive, the company plans to achieve 94 per cent localisation in its manufacture.

The product is targeted at a wide set of customer across segments, led by the B-segment.

Triber will be manufactured on a completely new platform is expected to be a key volume driver for Renault India. 

Both, Triber and the SUV to be launched next year, will help Renault cover the entire sub-4-meter segment, which accounts for 75 per cent of industry volume and achieve its target of doubling sales volume and market share to 200,000 units a year and 5 per cent, respectively.

Mamillapalle, who was not optimistic about electric vehicles due to infrastructure bottlenecks in the country, said that his company will bring EV product to meet the Government's mandate. "Kwid's electric version is currently running at China, we will bring that to India."