The only car that has clicked for Renault in India so far is their Duster which is a compact SUV. However, at its current pricing and size, it is half a segment over EcoSport and the French sees an opportunity here.
According to a report at Business Standard, Renault is planning to launch their Captur compact SUV/Crossover in India which can slug it out with the EcoSport and other mini-SUVs that are lined up for launches soon like Mahindra’s S101 and others.
Captur is already on sale in Europe and though the international edition is around 4,122 mm in length, Renault India may (must) bring it under the 4000 mm mark to ensure it gets classified as a ‘Small’ car here and can provide the company the flexibility to price it sensibly.
Captur may only come with the 1.5 Liter K9K diesel engine in the 85PS version and there may not be any petrol on offer. The launch, they say, is planned for sometime in 2018, which is a good 3 years away, before which we should see the Maruti’s YBA Compact Sedan, Tata Nexon and may be compact SUVs from Volkswagen and Chevrolet (Adra?)!
For this year, Renault has two major launches lined up – the 7 seater MPV Lodgy in the next few months and an Alto competitor small car codenamed as the XBA around the festive season.