Renault's India encore: A ‘one-chef kitchen' strategy for a comeback

Mint

4 days ago

French carmaker Renault, which has made little headway in India in its 20 years here, is taking another crack at what it considers a strategically important market.
The Paris-based carmaker claims to have learnt from its past mistakes. Renault India will be quick to respond to market needs, make consistent product launches and updates, and decision-making will be routed through one person, managing director Venkatram Mamillapalle said, contrasting it with the near-bureaucratic process earlier when it was married to Nissan.
'Today, we are one chef in the kitchen," he said, referring to Renault naming Stephane Deblaise as India CEO this week. He will take over from 1 September. 'Everything goes into one person or one power centre, and from there, it gets distributed and then cascades back. So, the responsibility and responsiveness will be terrifically good, which wasn't the case earlier," he said.
Earlier, decision-making for Renault in India was complicated given its global alliance with Nissan, which also sells cars in India. The two companies will still collaborate in India, with Renault contract-manufacturing for Nissan, but the operations will not be as integrated as before, simplifying India-specific decision making for the French carmaker.
Mamillapalle agreed that Renault missed a few tricks in India. For instance, it had launched the Duster and Kwid which turned out to be popular, but failed to maintain the momentum they generated by following up with regular updates and new launches. This was due to a lack of continuous investments in India, which he tied to global issues including financial struggles of the parent during the pandemic outbreak and its strained relationship with Nissan.
'Renault was at a sweet spot when they launched the Duster and Kwid, and later with the Triber and Kiger. But unfortunately, they were not able to sustain it with regular product updates," said Gaurav Vangaal, associate director at S&P Global Mobility, where he leads the light vehicle production forecast practice for the Indian subcontinent.
In 2023, when Renault decided to revitalize its India operations after exiting China and Russia, its headquarters in Paris cleared a $600-million budget for four new cars for the country. The first of these was formally unveiled Wednesday as the refreshed edition of Triber, which is Renault's experiment at making a seven-seater car under four metres of length to benefit from India's small-car friendly tax structure.
The Triber was launched to a lukewarm response in 2019, selling about 5,000 units a month in its first year against Renault's expectations of 7,000. Sales slowed to about 1,500 units a month as of 2025. Despite this, it manages to be Renault's top-seller in India, pointing to the French company's dismal performance in the country. Renault sold less than 40,000 cars in India in FY25, less than a quarter of what market leader Maruti Suzuki sells in a month. At its peak, it had sold about 135,000 units in FY17 with the success of Kwid and Duster.
To remedy this, the company has planned regular product launches and investments in expanding its sales network. This will help it reach more customers across price points and geographical locations, as per Mamillapalle. On the product front, it will focus on SUVs across price points to cater to growing consumer demand for these vehicles, he said.
The company did disclose the specifics of its product plans, but Autocar Professional has reported that the four planned launches include the updated Triber, Kiger and Duster as well as Bigster, which would be a seven-seater SUV based on the Duster platform.
But getting customers back to its showrooms won't be an easy task for Renault. It will have to tick many boxes to win in a highly competitive market, S&P's Vangaal said.
'When Renault launched Duster, there were only a few SUVs in the market, and that too from the older generation. Today, the market is flooded with new-gen SUVs. Competition is intense and consumers are spoilt for choice," he said.
Mamillapalle is unperturbed. 'I've got the biggest marketing agency, which is called product. The products will start getting customer focus, and they will build a brand as well," he said.