Renault has had 2 not so great attempts at the sedan market in India till date. First, they had launched the Logan in partnership which Mahindra and that produce continues to live as a Mahindra Verito now. But Renault dropped the Logan after they became independent in India, with Nissan of course. Renault had also launched the Fluence sedan which went on to rival the Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla Altis and Hyundai Elantra. But even the Fluence is a rare sight on the streets. Now, reports suggest that Renault is having a more budget oriented focus for their upcoming sedan, and they will have a sub-4 metre product developed for India and other emerging markets.
Expected to debut sometime in 2021-22, this sub-4 metre compact-sedan will slot in the high volume segment to rival the Maruti Suzuki Dzire, Hyundai Xcent, Ford Aspire, Honda Amaze and Volkswagen Ameo. This gives us a price reference of nearly INR 5-9 lakh, spread across petrol, diesel and automatic variants.
The new compact-sedan is expected to be based on the CMF-A+ platform. This chassis is used by the recently launched Triber and also the upcoming Renault HBC will make use of the same. So cost efficiency would be maintained for a competitive price tag. This small sedan will also be used for other emerging markets like Latin America, Africa and South East Asia; exported out of India.
Renault-Nissan have an alliance production unit at Chennai in India, and there is no news if Nissan will also have a badge engineered sibling of this compact-sedan. Both brands had retailed the Sunny and Scala sedans earlier, but while the Scala is now off the market, the Sunny continues to limp with very poor sales.
Expect the 2021-22 Renault compact-sedan to come loaded with safety and infotainment features to lure customers away from the mass marker favourite brands.