Beyond X90, Renault’s very cheap vehicle (VCV) project with Bajaj is opening up some interesting possibilities. Talks are continuing with Indian scooter-maker Bajaj, and Detourbet is adamant the project will be profitable. “I think we can make money from anything! How do you make money with Logan?” said Renault X90 programme chief Gerard Detourbet.
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But the programme is more challenging – with Logan a lot of existing parts could be used, whereas with the VCV, scheduled to sell for around USD3,000, Renault cannot so easily draw on existing components. “We need to develop a new powertrain – an existing Renault powertrain would cost $3,000 alone!” Detourbet said. “We’re at beginning of the life of this project, and we have to develop a new idea of a car.”
The VCV is “not a car we can sell everywhere in the world – not in Europe, not in China. It will be well fitted to Indian market”. But it does potentially open up other new markets for Renault, such as Thailand “It will be a south Asia car.”
And more intriguingly, the VCV platform could be used to develop other models that fit between the Indian-market model and the Logan. “We may be able to develop a more expensive but more accurate car for some emerging countries – something between USD3,000 car and Logan. This is possible, but everything needs to be analysed,” Detourbet said.
In India, the Renault-Bajaj VCV will be up against a similar project from Tata. Detourbet has been tracking this for some time, and he’s still unclear what the project will comprise. “At very beginning, we thought the car would not be a car – more like a rickshaw with four wheels.”
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By GlobalDataWhile Tata maintains it will be more sophisticated than that, Renault made the decision that it had to be in the new sector. “We cannot leave Tata alone,” Detourbet said.
Bajaj was identified as a way of “introducing some Genetic ideas from outside”, Detourbet said. “We wanted someone with different pattern of automotive knowledge – Bajaj makes small trucks, rickshaws and motorbikes. The only way to do the project was to work with somebody who is producing cheap vehicles on a large scale with a totally free spirit.” Renault’s existing Indian partner Mahindra was not suitable, as its focus is on more expensive cars and pick-ups.
Detourbet adds: “It is a very complicated problem. In future, this project will be very different than today. We need time to understand what we can do – what are the links with Logan? How can we upgrade a USD3,000 car to other markets outside India – maybe Brazil, Russia, China, or Iran? We have a list of questions but we cannot answer them today.”
See also: EMERGING MARKETS ANALYSIS: It’s a Logan, but not as we know it
