Renault Influence to hit Indian roads by year 2011
France based leading car maker Renault is all set to mark its debut in the sedan segment by launching its much awaited Influence model by year 2011. According to Mr Marc Nassif, Renault India Country General Manager and Managing Director at Renault India, the company will introduce the first sedan Influence by 2011 and a SUV Koleos by 2012-13. He added that the Influence would be manufactured at the company’s Oragadam plant near Chennai.
It is to be mentioned here that Renault India has invested heavily (Rs 4,500) on its Chennai manufacturing facility in partnership with its Global partner Nissan. Mr Nassif (who is also the Deputy Managing Director of Renault-Nissan Auto mobile India) further added that company is keen on using maximum possible percentage of localized content in its cars in India. According to him the recently launched Nissan Micra hatchback has been manufactured with around 60 percent local content and company wants to take this figure to 80 percent.
While in the SUV segment, the company is planning to launch its popular Koleos model. The Koleos will be imported to India as completely knocked down (CKD) units and will be assembled at the company's plant in Chennai. With this, Nissan-Renault is also developing an ultra low cost car in the Indian market in partnership with India based Bajaj Auto. The model claims to offer an exceptional fuel economy of 30 km/l.