Renault India to expand export markets; eyes Africa

Buoyed by the success of small car Kwid and the SUV Duster in India, French auto-maker Renault is looking to expand its foothold in the export markets. Renault, which began the export of the Duster and Kwid to Sri Lanka last month from India, is now looking to expand its market to Africa and other neighbouring countries.

Renault has witnessed an overwhelming response for its small car Kwid and the car has raked in over 1.5 lakh bookings. The company has already started the export of Kwid to a few countries and will be looking to reach more countries.

"Last month we started exporting Duster and Kwid to Sri Lanka. This month we will be entering Nepal while we also prepare to enter Bhutan," Sumit Sawhney, country CEO and managing director, Renault India Operations told the Press Trust of India. 

Renault also has plans to make the Kwid in Brazil. Currently, India is the manufacturing hub for the Kwid. Produced at its factory near Oragadam, Chennai, Renault has added a third shift and is currently looking at a production of 9,000- 9,5000 units of the Kwid. In Brazil, Renault will start assembling the Kwid hatchback at Renault's Ayrton Senna Industrial Complex in Curitiba from September. The Brazilian version of the Kwid has been given more local flavours adapted by Renault Technology Americas, which is one of the seven Renault strategic engineering centres across the world.

The company has exported 441 units of cars during the April-June period, as against 56 units exported in the same period last fiscal. The company is hopeful of this number going up in the coming months. Riding on the sales of the Kwid, Renault India saw its monthly sales rise to 11,968 units in July 2016 as against 1,686 units in the corresponding month last year.