After putting a hold on investment in the second stage if its Chennai plant venture with alliance partner Nissan, Renault insisted at the New Delhi show its “commitment to India remains undiluted” and promised to launch several new cars locally.
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The automaker’s top Asia/Africa executive, Katsumi Nakamura, said: “We extremely happy to confirm our commitment to India through the launch of a comprehensive line-up.
This means that the investments that were earmarked for India, but were frozen for a while, are now back on
track, and India will be seeing a re-energised Renault very soon. The Renault Nissan Alliance greenfield
manufacturing facility in Chennai is well on track and is a key asset for our ambitions in India.”
Last November Renault chief Carlos Ghosn said the first phase of the Indian plant would be completed before the end of the first quarter of this year.
“However, we have currently suspended the second phase – not because we do not believe in the potential of India’s market or the capacity of exports from India, but until we see where this decline in the global automotive market is ending,” said Ghosn.
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By GlobalDataThe Chennai plant was expected to have an annual capacity of 400,000 cars. Nissan was set to produce the new Micra as a global car in Chennai starting next May although Renault had put its production plans for the plant on hold.
Ghosn said that he expected the Indian market to grow from 2m annual sales to around 6m over the next 10 years and for exports of Indian-built vehicles to also grow. “The whole auto industry is down globally, but India’s exports have been increasing, which is a good sign,” he said.
Mr Ghosn also said that talks were on-going with partner Mahindra & Mahindra on bringing new products and re-designing the Logan for the Indian market. Logan sales had declined an annual 69% during the April-September period to 2,901 vehicles.
Today in New Delhi, country general manager and MD of Renault India, Marc Nassif, said : “Our plan involves introduction of several new cars within 18-24 months and a full range in a 48-month timeframe. These cars will be produced in Chennai and we plan to launch the Fluence (Megane sedan) and Koleos (SUV) models in 2011.
Our range will have small to luxury cars and will be mix of Renault models and shared platform cars within the Renault-Nissan Alliance, including a crossover. We are also close to finalising our plans for a distribution network and will definitely be in a position to announce our plans in the first week of February 2010.”
So far, Renault has spent EUR100m (US$144m) on the Chennai facility, Reuters reported.
“It is tough to survive in this market. So we will take it step by step,” Nakamura told the news agency. “Our first focus will be to produce cars for the Indian market and then look at exports after it is established here.”
He said the company was looking to sell 50,000 to 60,000 cars a year in India, within three years.
On the aforementioned joint venture with Indian automaker Mahindra & Mahindra that produces the Logan sedan, Nakamura said both partners were still reviewing options on how to boost sales.
The Logan has been facing dwindling sales in India because of high pricing and taxes.
Nakamura said his company was yet to decide on production of other cars in the joint venture with Mahindra.
