Renault India will be launching the Scala sedan in the last quarter of 2012, after the launch of the Duster. The company relayed this information to us on the on-going Fluence E4D drive in Chennai today. The Renault Scala is nothing but a re-badged Nissan Sunny, but with slight cosmetic changes to make it stand out of the crowd. Mechanically the Renault Scala is identical to the Sunny and will feature the same range of engines, producing the same output and delivering similar fuel economy.
The Renault Scala is the fifth and the last of the 5-product strategy made by Renault last year. The vehicle will initially be offered with the 1.5-litre k9k diesel engine. The dCi motor produces 85 BHP of peak power and 200 Nm of peak torque. The 1.5-litre petrol engine will join in later and produces 97 BHP of peak power and 134 Nm of peak torque. An automatic variant of the petrol Scala will be offered in the Indian market next year, which uses a 4-speed CVT gearbox.
Renault has a huge line-up of cars available internationally and some of them are based on the V-platform too. However Renault chooses to simply re-badge Nissan vehicles as the cost advantages are tremendous. The Nissan Sunny has been doing good numbers and has piped the City and Verna in March 2012 sales, which could mean good news for Renault too. Expect pricing to be similar to the Sunny, with Renault charging a slight premium like they have done with the Pulse.
