Renault to stop selling irrelevant CKD cars

Riding on the success of heavily localised products like the Kwid and the Duster, Renault has decided to discontinue all completely knocked down (CKD) and semi-knocked down (SKD) cars in the country. The company has announced that it will be focusing on products that have at least 80% localisation in case of big cars, and 95% localisation in small cars.

We had earlier reported that Renault had silently removed the Fluence sedan from its website, pointing towards its discontinuation. Now, the Koleos SUV too has been eliminated from the company's portfolio on the official website. Both these cars were assembled in India through imported kits, and were thus priced inappropriately, especially in comparison to their immediate competitors. In a price sensitive market like ours, these high prices ensured that both the cars didn't attract much attention from potential customers.

Meanwhile, Renault's best-selling car in India - the Kwid, is claimed to have 98% localisation. This has helped the French automaker to price the car aggressively and thus reap success, even in the highly competitive entry-level hatchback segment. Learning from this experience, Renault will now be focusing on heavily localised products for the Indian market.

The company is reported to be planning to launch three new products in the country, one of which will be a compact SUV. Renault is also continuously expanding its dealer network in India, which has been increased from 205 to 270 outlets during 2016.

Source: ET Auto