Renault cars registration up by seven fold in India

While the automobile market grew 17% in India, Renault registrations were multiplied sevenfold, one of the highest among the markets where the company has its presence.

The surge was driven by its compact hatchback Kwid. Since the beginning of the current year, 82,771 Kwids have been registered, including 34,350 in the third quarter alone.

The French automajor is set to achieve two major milestones by end of 2016. One crossing one lakh mark and its vision of 5% market share in India.

Between January and December 2014, the company sold around 44,849 cars in India, which was increased to around 54,000 units in 2015. Since Kwid was available only for three months last year, number of Kwids sold was only 18,000 units or around 6,000 units a month last year.

 

From beginning of this year, Renault's sales have picked up.

Number of cars sold by the French company was around 70,000 units, while registrations were around 82,771 units.

Company sources said already, number of bookings crossed 1.65 lakh units, while number of units delivered crossed 97,000 units during the nine months.

Sales was largely driven by Kwid, whose production was increased to 10,000 units a month now, followed by Duster, which clocks around 1500-2000 units a month. These two are the major volume drivers for the company in India, while it has other products like Lodgy.

As the festival season started, the company like other OEMs is bullish on sales and said it is hopeful that sales would cross the 1,00,000 mark this year.

Renault which has been targeting five per cent market share also hopes to achieve its vision this year. Company's market share currently stands at around 4.5%, which was around two per cent last year. Today the company is the sixth largest brand in the Indian passenger car market.

Renault said that in 2016, the global market is expected to record growth of around 1.7%compared to 2015. The European market, as well as the French one, are now expected to increase by at least 5%.

Outside Europe, the Brazilian and Russian markets are expected to decline: -15% to -20% for Brazil and -12% for Russia. On the contrary, China (+4% to +5%) and India (+7% to +9%) should pursue their positive momentum.