You will not be able to believe it, but its true, Renault is keen on developing a car which will be priced around US$3000 .Renault is already producing a budget car Renault Logan in association with Mahindra and Mahindra for the Indian market, but this one is too hard to digest
This low cost car is expected to be designed, developed and produced at the Three Way Greenfield Plant being set up by Renault, Nissan and M&M India. Around a 1000 engineers are expected to be employed for the cause & an initial investment of Rs 4000 crore is expected to be made in a joint venture .
As the developmental cost in India is very low in comparison to the rest of the world, it has been Carlon Ghson’s (Renault Chief) preference. Moreover, it is not meant for the European market, purely because at such a low price it will be next to impossible to match the initial safety & emission standards prevalent in Europe .
It will be targeted to exploit the markets of the developing nations or what we call the third world countries, where safety equipments are optional, emission standards are very low and materials used for production have no quality control, making it cheaper altogether .
With the production of such a low cost car, Renault will be setting its feet in the Indian market of smaller and cheaper cars, which won’t be easy as there are some big domestic players already in the ground, who are trying their hands at similar concepts.
TATA motors (IND) is about to launch a car with a price tag of just $2200 and it has the advantage of the home ground. Global Automobiles ltd Kolkota is also about to launch the cheapest car in the market in collaboration with Chinese govt. owned auto makers Guangzhou Motors’ Company.
The targeted customers for these cars will be the lower middle class and in this targeted market there is a huge potential. It now depends on the players; how profitably do they exploit it.
This is not only a test for the companies or the entrepreneurs involved, it will also test the skills of the engineers, as it would be interesting to see how they manufacture a good product in such a tight budget, which will call for an analysis where they have to prioritize a basic driver’s need.
Let’s see how Renault faces the heat, the good thing though is that they have the support of a domestic player, rest, only the time will tell, but I just hope its appearance is better than the Logan.
Image Credit : Eastrolog
Via :Paultan
