Renault-Nissan have decided to get exclusivity in their products for going forward in India. The Duster’s huge response made Renault realize that product differentiators holds the key to the future. This move will mark a departure from the present business model where the Nissan Micra and Renault Pulse as well as the Sunny and Scala are near clones of each other. Synergies at the back-end are absolutely critical and this is the crux of the Renault-Nissan alliance. The front-end, though, will now have to be completely exclusive. At the retail level, partners have their own networks to ensure separate brand identities.
The next big platform strategy for global compact cars will see completely different products from these partners. Talking about the prices Nissan’s range sporting the Datsun badge is likely to start from a price point of Rs. 2.5 lakh, competing with Maruti Suzuki’s recently launched Alto 800 and going up to Rs. 4.5 lakh. On the other hand, the Renault small car will be a part of the upper B-segment characterized by models like the Swift, Figo, Etios and Polo. The prices will start from Rs. 4 lakh onwards and will go up to Rs. 6 lakh for diesel versions.
Sources say that they will be totally different cars and this will be the route for all future products from the alliance and the back-end synergies will ensure a competitive costing structure. It is also clear that the earlier proposal for an ultra-low cost car planned with Bajaj Auto, inspired by the Tata Nano has now been halted. Renault and Nissan share a large facility near Chennai which also marks their coming together for the first time globally in manufacturing synergies. This model will now be replicated in the Morocco plant where lessons from Chennai have come in handy.
Source – BusinessLine