Plan to launch six new products under Renault-Nissan alliance is on schedule: Official

Chennai: The plan to roll out six new products, including two electric vehicles under the Franco-Japanese automotive alliance Renault Nissan, at a total outlay of INR 5,300 crore has been progressing and is on schedule, a top official of French car major Renault India said on Wednesday. Renault-Nissan, in February 2023, had announced investments of USD 600 million (about INR 5,300 crore) in India, to bring in six new products, including two electric cars, and an upgradation of their Chennai plant.

Renault India Country CEO and Managing Director Venkatram Mamillapalle at an event said on Wednesday that about 70-80 per cent of the total committed investments have been invested so far.

"We have announced investments of INR 5,300 crore to introduce six new products. It (the project) is on schedule. You will be hearing from us hereafter, very soon (on the launch of new models)," he said.

Mamillapalle was speaking to reporters after unveiling a new range of "Night and Day Limited Edition" variants across its product portfolio in India.

Renault India currently retails three models in India - the small car Kwid, premium hatchback Kiger and multi-utility vehicle Triber. The vehicles are produced from the Renault-Nissan Automotive India Pvt Ltd manufacturing facility at Oragadam situated about 45 kms from here.

To a query, he said, "we have already started investing and we are honouring our commitment to the Tamil Nadu government. We are trying to bring innovation in place."

However, he declined to comment on the timeline of when the new products would be rolled out.

On today's launch of limited edition models, Mamillapalle said the new variants would be limited to 1,600 units and would be available for customers on a 'first come first served basis.'

"If the response (from the customers) is good, we will have good volume on this," he said.

According to company officials, the Night and Day Limited Edition of Triber would cost above INR 20,000 higher from RXL manual variant at INR 7 lakh (Ex-showroom), premium hatchback Kiger at INR 6,74,990 with an additional cost of INR 15,000 while the Night and Day Limited Edition of small car Kwid equipped with a host of features, would be retailed at current sale price of INR 4,99,500 (ex-showroom) without any additional costs.

South has been the biggest market for Renault India with Tamil Nadu and Kerala driving the majority of sales volume to the automaker. "The response from Kerala for the Night and Day Limited Edition has been encouraging," he said.

The new models are equipped with a host of features like dual tone pearl white body colour and black roof, 9 inch touchscreen, piano black wheel covers, piano black grille, black nameplate among others.