Renault hopes to achieve 5% market share by end of 2016

It will launch a 1-litre engine version of Kwid this month

French automajor Renault is expected to achieve the target of five per cent market share by end of this year, which is one year ahead of its original target, thanks to its entry-level crossover Kwid and other efforts. The company is also planning to enhance production capacity of Kwid to bring down the waiting period to one month from the current two-three months and launch one litre Kwid this month, said senior management.

The company set a target of five per cent market share by 2017, but its hopeful that it would reach by end of December 2016 itself, one year ahead of its schedule, said Sumit Sawhney, Country CEO and Managing Director, Renault India Operations.

 

Though India is one of the most challenging market, the company wants to grow profitably and one of the key for it is localisation, he said. The company is expected to reach 100,000 mark by December 2016.

Sawhney said that Kwid is among the top 10 selling brands in the country and acceptability of the product is good since it has delivered the promises. The segment in which Kwid operates is divided into two one is 0.8 litre and other one is 1 litre, current Kwid is 0.8 litre and to cater the customers who wants more power the one litre Kwid will be launched by end of this month.

This will be a variant and not a new product, said Sawhney, adding that AMT version will be followed, for which he did not put any time frame.

Kwid, which compete with products like Alto, Eon, Wagon R, i10 and others claims a market share of around 14.2 per cent, of the around 4.07 lakh units sold in the segment between January and July 2016. It may be noted, the Kwid started the year (Calendar) with less than 10 per cent market share. Total number of Kwid running on the Indian roads at present is around 70,000.

Currently waiting period for this product is around 2-3 months and company plans to bring down it to one month in less three months by enhancing production.

The company ramped up the production from 6,000 in February 2016 units to 9,900 units a month and wants to increase it to 10,000 units and Sawhney said the goal would be to cross manufacturing of 10,000 units consistently.

Renault started exporting Kwid to Sri Lanka and by end of this month it will start exporting to Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh. It will be followed by South Africa and Brazil next year.

The new Renault Lodgy World Edition, a MPV launched two weeks back will boost the sales, which is currently selling 650 units in retail every month. The product comes with additional features targeting more of mid range personnel segment as well as fleet, while earlier Lodgy was only personnel high-end segment.

"Lodgy has to grow on its own strength and it is value for money," said Sawhney.

To support these products the company is planning to expand its sales outlets to 270 by December end from the current 215. Most of which would come beyond tier-III towns.

Renault India closed 2015 with a sales of around 54,000 units and till July the sales crossed 75,000 units and the company is confident that it will cross 100,000 mark by end of the year.

While Kwid's localisation is 98 per cent, Renault is now planning to increase the localisation of Duster and Lodgy to 80 per cent from the current 70 per cent.