In a bid to fight against the largest selling car in the country, Renault is preparing to launch a more powerful Kwid at the 2016 Auto Expo in February.
The Renault Kwid has gathered tremendous attention in India receiving more than 80,000 bookings. Thanks to the clever pricing and desirable package, Renault is expecting the Kwid’s sales to hit 1,00,000 mark in 2016. The French automaker plans to achieve this target by introducing a new variant of the Kwid competing directly with the Maruti Alto K10 AMT. Though the entry-level hatchback is not even close to Maruti numbers, their plan is to grab a substantial market share in this space.
Currently the Renault Kwid is powered by a 800cc, 3-cylinder petrol engine that produces 54 PS and 72 Nm, mated to a 5-speed manual transmission. The more powerful Kwid will get a 1.0-litre petrol engine that will produce around 75 PS of power and will also be available with a 5-speed clutch-less AMT (automated manual transmission) gearbox. This new recipe will not only make the light car quicker but also convenient in congested city traffic conditions. Renault has taken a clever strategy to introduce this version later to maintain the buzz in the market.
The Renault Kwid’s price range is Rs. 2.57 lakhs to Rs. 3.53 lakhs and the new 1.0-litre AMT version will also be priced aggressively at around Rs. 4-4.2 lakhs. This pricing gets the Kwid bang against the Maruti Alto, which will help Renault spin decent volumes. However, reaching the high volumes of Alto is next to impossible for Renault for the time being. Maruti Suzuki has the widest reach and is the most trusted brand in India, whereas Renault is relatively new in the game and doesn’t cover Tier-II, Tier-III areas extensively.
Hyundai is also striving to get good numbers in this space with the Eon hatchback but it is relatively pricey and has lost the steam in the market. After the introduction of the more powerful Kwid, we believe the Eon sales will further drop down. The Renault Kwid is targeted towards the first time car buyers and the car has most of the elements required by that specific audience. It has got the looks, practicality, features and now it will get more convenient and powerful. It will also be interesting to see the performance of Datsun Redi-GO in this space when launched at the Auto Expo.
Source – ETAuto.com
