Renault Duster, Kwid will be growth drivers in 2016

The Duster facelift and Kwid 1.0-litre would be the growth drivers this year.Boosted by the Kwid’s excellent response, Renault India finished December 2015 as the 6th largest car maker in the country, a position which the automaker is determined to maintain throughout the 2016 calendar year. The brand finished CY 2015 in 8th position.

The newly launched Duster facelift started off the proceedings in 2016 which would be soon followed by the Kwid 1.0-litre variant. Both products have Easy-R AMT gearboxes as their primary selling point.

By the end of 2015, Renault India managed to garner 2.0% market share which is pretty close to the Alliance’s market share target of 5% (2.5% apiece by Renault and Nissan) however, Nissan India is far from reaching its target. The French automaker witnessed an impressive growth of 20% in 2015 and a similar growth rate in 2016 would be good enough to seal the 6th spot.

Renault India has been slowly but steadily increasing the production capacity of the Kwid to reduce the waiting period. Towards the end of this month, the car maker would be having a production capacity of 10,000 units of the small car every month. From April, third shift will be added to the Alliance plant to further increase the capacity. Of around 1,000 cars that are being manufactured every day at the plant, about 80% belong to Renault and rest is accounted for by Datsun and Nissan.

This article first appeared on rushlane.com