Exclusive: Renault to Launch Lodgy in March; Upcoming Small Car during Festive Season
Renault India will be launching two new products in 2015 – Renault Lodgy and its upcoming small car. In an exclusive interview with Mr. Sumit Sawhney, we discussed about these products. Renault Lodgy has already been showcased in India during 2015 Star Guild Awards and Renault is planning to launch the MPV in March.
Renault Lodgy is a big MPV and with a wheelbase of 2810 mm which is more than even Toyota Innova’s 2750 mm, Lodgy will be the most spacious 7 seater MPV in the country. Renault is expecting high from the MPV, as the segment is the fastest growing in India and Renault believes that the MPV will become a strong volume pillar for the manufacturer. Mr. Sawhney further shared that the MPV will be launched with its sportier trim Stepway in the country and both the trims will go on sale together.
Talking about the upcoming small car, Mr. Sawhney said that the hatchback segment holds 50 per cent market share and Renault wants a strong presence in the segment. The new hatchback has been codenamed as XBA and will be based on all new platform. Mr. Sawhney shared that they are planning to launch the small car in the second half of 2015, hinting towards a festive season launch. As it is the best time to launch any new automobile product in India. The word on the street is that the car will be featuring an 800 cc petrol engine, however Mr. Sawhney denied to comment on this.
On asking that the upcoming car shares its platform with Datsun RediGo and will there be any similarities between the two? Mr. Sawhney said that the new small car will be a totally different product and it will be complete Renault car. He further added that despite the fact that both the cars will be sharing the same platform, there won’t be any other similarities between the two cars.
Image Source: Noticias Automotivas