The price of Kiger has been kept very competitive compared to its rivals in Hyundai, Kia and Tata.
New Delhi: The French automobile manufacturer Renault that has faced a slump in the Indian market for the last few years due to a tough competition from its rivals like Tata, Kia and Hyundai is, however, expecting to now make a breakthrough in India through its recently launched sub-compact SUV segment car, the Renault Kiger.
The Renault Kiger that packs itself to take on Hyundai’s Venue, Kia’s Sonet and even for that matter Tata’s Nexon, was launched in 2021 to cater to the Indian automotive market’s demand for mid-sized SUV segment car. A Renault India spokesperson who spoke to The Sunday Guardian said that Kiger was launched in India in line with the strategy that Renault had for India. As per the strategy, Renault wants to make a breakthrough in the Indian market and take on a significant market space in the sub-compact SUV segment for which the price of Kiger has been kept very competitive compared to its rivals in Hyundai, Kia and Tata. The top model of Renault’s Kiger comes with an ex-showroom price of a little over 10 lakh Rupees packing itself with all the best features available in the industry for this segment of the cars in India.
“With KIGER, Renault has successfully launched yet another breakthrough product, targeted at the core of Indian’s automotive market. In just a year of its launch, Renault KIGER has emerged as one of the volume drivers for Renault in India along with the KWID and the TRIBER. Overall, we are seeing good demand for all our products and in the coming months our focus will be to meet these demands, amidst the semi-conductor challenges,” the Renault spokesperson quoted above told this newspaper. Not only Renault, the semiconductor chip shortage is acting as a dampener in the global automobile market, with automobile manufacturers not being able to manufacturer as much car as it is in the demand, therefore forcing customers to wait for months from the time of their booking the car before they get their delivery.
However, addressing the semiconductor chip shortage issue, Renault India said that Renault India is working their best to maximise production and minimise the impact of supply constraints and that unlike its rivals like Hyundai and Kia that has a waiting period ranging over months, Renault is pushing itself to deliver cars to their customers across India in between two to 14 weeks from the time of booking.
Renault’s sharp focus in India also stems from the fact Kiger was launched in India first and was manufactured keeping in mind the Indian customers and the Indian demands. Explaining further on Renault’s plans in India, the Renault India spokesperson told this newspaper, “Renault Kiger is the third global car from Renault Group that was launched in India first, followed by other markets, clearly highlighting the importance of India in Renault’s global growth plans. Renault KIGER’s success has placed India among Renault’s top 5 global markets in 2021.”
Renault India is not only manufacturing in India for the Indian market, but also making in India and exporting their Kiger to countries like Nepal, South Africa and Indonesia. Apart from this, the Renault India spokesperson said that the French automobile manufacturer since it entered Indian market in 2011 has built strong assets in India with a manufacturing plant in Chennai having an annual capacity of 4,80,000 units, a Technology centre which employs more than 8000 people with pioneering and world class technology. Renault is also the first automotive brand to have a design centre in India.
But despite such huge investments that Renault has made in India, there has been a buzz in the market that Renault could follow the path of Ford and that of Nissan’s Datsun and take the exit path from India as the company has not been able to get the expected sales from the Indian market till now. The Sunday Guardian sought clarification from Renault over this “rumour” or buzz about Renault exiting India, to which a senior official of Renault India said: “These are speculation and there is no truth to such rumours. India is a very important market for Renault and is among the top 5 markets globally. Renault has more than 500 sales and 530 plus service touchpoints in India. Kiger, Kwid and Triber are well for us, there is no need for us to exit this country.”
The sales data also suggests that Kiger has come out to become the volume driver in terms of sales of Renault in India. And an official from Renault had told this correspondent that Kiger has become the “bread and butter” for Renault in India. According to the sales data, there has been an increase of 44% of sales for Renault’s Kiger since December 2021 and contributes to about 37% of the total sales from Renault in India.
Further answering our question on whether Renault India wants to venture into the electric bandwagon and how soon, the Renault India spokesperson said, “As part of our ‘Renaulution’ programme, there is a strong focus on electrification globally. India is a key market for Renault and will be touched by the electrification wave. For India, developing a complete ecosystem is important. Right time is when there will be localisation to enable us to be competitive. Rather than launching a niche product, our aim is to launch an affordable product, catering to the mass market and thereby addressing the real objective and vision of India’s transition to electric mobility.”