Powered by the Duster SUV, India has emerged Renault’s 11th largest car market globally for the first quarter (January-March) of this year. The French automaker declared its results in Paris a little over a fortnight ago.
With sales of 19,869 units in the three-month period, India is just 600 units behind Spain which has notched up 20,461 units. Belgium is the ninth position with sales of 21,714 units, while Iran (which did over 30,000 units in Q1 of 2012) trails India by nearly 1,000 units.
Renault’s top market continues to be France with 1.35 lakh units, while Russia, Brazil and Germany are in the next three positions. At the bottom of this list of the top 15 markets are the UK, South Korea and Morocco with combined sales of nearly 38,500 units.
In February 2011, Renault’s CEO, Carlos Ghosn, had unveiled the roadmap called ‘Drive the Change’ where he reiterated that emerging markets would be the growth engines of the future.
During this presentation, India was targeted to be the 11th largest market by 2013 at a time it did not even feature in Renault’s top 15 (and was not part of 2012 Q1’s list either).
Argentina, which was then in the 11th slot, has since climbed rapidly to become the company’s fifth largest market in the first quarter of this year.
Overseas positioning
Renault had estimated Brazil to be in the second position, followed by Germany and Russia. In reality, Russia emerged a lot stronger and is now ahead of Brazil and Germany.
Renault’s sales beyond Europe now account for 50 per cent of overall numbers which is keeping in line with its vision of being a truly global carmaker.
India’s strong showing, meanwhile, is thanks to the Duster which has been clocking over 6,000 units each month. Going by the present momentum, there is a strong chance of the country overtaking Spain and, perhaps, Belgium too, by the end of this year.
The Indian management at Renault has, however, maintained that it would rather go one step at a time even while acknowledging that the Duster has been a key catalyst in the growth story.
The other products here include the Fluence, Koleos, Pulse and Scala which fill up key user segments but are still not a patch on the Duster’s overwhelming presence.
Next offering
Renault’s next big offering in India will be the global compact car expected to hit the roads after 2015.
It will be part of the premium hatchback segment, which has models like the Suzuki Swift, Honda Brio, Toyota Etios and so on, and could find its way into markets such as Brazil and South Africa.