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Renault was all set to launch the Duster compact crossover this June, but now the company has pushed back the launch to October. The French automaker states on its website that the Duster will go on sale in June but the the company has confirmed to us that they plan to utilize the increase in buying behaviour during the festive season to unleash the Renault Duster on Indian roads. This will mean that the Duster will after all not really enjoy the first mover advantage as that is the time when Ford is also expected to launch the EcoSport compact SUV.
The delay in launch of the Renault Duster is unknown but could the small dealership network be the reason for this delay? Currently Renault has less than 50 dealerships in India, which is not enough to distribute a potentially hot selling vehicle like the Duster. Renault could soon go offensive by opening up new dealerships across tier-II and tier-III cities. This will enable Renault to compete with Ford, who has more than five times the dealerships, enabling the EcoSport to reach to more customers.
The Renault Duster is powered by the 1.5-litre K9K dCi diesel engine which produces 108 PS of power and the 1.5-litre petrol engine which produces 97 BHP of peak power at 6000 RPM and 134 Nm of peak torque at 4000 RPM. This is the same engine which does duty on the petrol Nissan Sunny. The diesel engined Duster will be the more popular engine of choice and the Duster is expected to put Renault’s sales chart on fire, something which the Fluence and Koleos haven’t managed to do yet.
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