Tuesday, February 18, 2025 | 04:23 AM ISTहिंदी में पढें
Business Standard
Notification Icon
userprofile IconSearch

Renault launches global small car Kwid, to be priced at Rs 3-4 lakh

The global launch of the car in Chennai underlines company's desire to break into India market

Renault Kwid

T E Narasimhan Chennai
French automobile major Renault on Wednesday unveiled its new compact hatchback 'Kwid' in Chennai, the global launch of the car. 

The global car – Renault’s first car based on the CMF-A (Common Module Family-Affordable) concept – was unveiled by Chairman and CEO of Renault Group Carlos Ghosn, who is also the Chief Executive of Renault-Nissan Alliance. 

“Kwid will be a game changer in Indian automotive and global automotive markets,” Ghosn said, adding that the India launch would be followed by other emerging markets and then other global markets. 

Renault–Nissan Alliance is a Franco-Japanese strategic partnership between Renault and Nissan.

Kwid is an important milestone for Renault, which is trying to accelerate its growth, and will compete in the small-car segment with Maruti's Alto and Hyundai's Eon, Chevrolet's Spark, as well as Nissan’s Datsun. 
 

The company will start commercial sales of Kwid in time for the festive season that starts in the second half of the calendar year. The car will be priced between Rs 3 lakh and Rs 4 lakh. The top-end Hyundai Eon 0.8 liter Sportz costs Rs 4.11 lakh, while the Alto 800 VXi with airbag comes to around Rs 3.44 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi).

Nissan said in a statement that the CMF-A model on average reduces 30-40% costs in the entry level model and 20-30% reduction in parts cost, largely because 98% of its suppliers are based in India. 

Industry experts say that with the exception of compact SUV Duster, Renault has been unable to make a mark in the Indian passenger car market, one of the largest in the world.
  
Ghosn, however, is betting big on emerging markets including India, China, Brazil, South Africa & Indonesia.

Ghosn, who admires India's frugal engineering, re-introduced the Datsun brand from Nissan to cater to first time buyers who were predominately going for Maruti and Hyundai.  To tap into this market, which accounts a little over 40% of India’s passenger car segment, the Alliance is betting big on Datsun and Kwid.

However, industry experts say Datsun – which was one of the earliest small cars  to come to India around the same time that the Maruti 800 was launched – has not performed as expected, despite aggressive pricing on its two models, Go and Go+. The challenge for the Datsun brand was visibility and brand recall was not much in India, unlike in other parts of the world.

The French automajor currently has less than 2% market share in India and is aiming for 5% percent over the next couple of years. 

Don't miss the most important news and views of the day. Get them on our Telegram channel

First Published: May 20 2015 | 11:48 AM IST

Explore News