French carmaker Renault has had many ups and downs — mostly downs— in India since entering the market. It had the typical European attitude of immensely underestimating the market. And if that did not turn out to be a near-disaster, their global tie-up with Nissan, when it unravelled, almost did it for them.
Through the process, the company did one thing right, though — it took all those hard knocks and bitter lessons quite seriously. And now, come 2026, it wants to put into practice what it learned, to come up trumps in the Indian out.
Step one of that was last year, when Renault took back full ownership of the Chennai manufacturing plant, which was originally a part of the Nissan tie-up. The second is the launch of the new line-up of cars.
The Duster, whose new line-up was launched on Tuesday, is pivotal to this. Back in 2012, perhaps even without realising it, Renault had kicked off the Compact SUV revolution in India with the launch of the original Duster. It’s another matter that the credit for India’s SUV boom is often credited to two other models — the Ford Ecosport, which was the first ‘viral’ model to come in this bracket, as well as the Hyundai Creta, which is today the market leader and poster boy of the segment.
Duster did sell a lot — more than two lakh units were sold, with Renault officials billing it a ‘benchmark’. “(Duster is) synonymous with robustness, versatility and a certain spirit of adventure,” says an official blog from Renault.
An interesting aspect of the unexpected success of Duster in India, till then, Renault had not thought much of the Indian market, was the fact that it was in a lot of ways quite different from Renault’s typical aesthetics of comfort and features. Duster was more basic, but sturdy, which made it popular amidst India’s combination of congestion and bad roads.
However, Renault still continued its bloopers, withdrawing the Duster from the market in the late 2010s without an alternative or a refurbished variant in place, and its other models not living up to the success of the Duster. The result? Its market share, which was at 2016 during the first boom in SUV craze at 4 per cent plummeted to below 1 per cent by 2023-24 or so.
However, with the Indian auto market still on rosy growth even as global trends indicate a churn, Renault is finally in on India — the Chennai plant is now fully mobilised, under direct control, and churning out new models not just for domestic use, but for export to scores of Renault’s markets across the world. India also boasts of development, and is today at par with its hubs in Latin America, Morocco, Turkey and South Korea. The aim, according to company documents, is to double production at Chennai.
For that, it will need robust sales of not just the new variant of Duster, but also the other products. Renault seems to have hit upon the formula of trying out Hybrid vehicles rather than an outright switch to electric, and it augurs well that the Indian market has shown a penchant, both in sales figures as well as policy relief, for hybrid cars.
The learning process surely seems to be helping. Back when Duster was discontinued, Renault had tried to make up with Captur — lots of frills and priced high. It didn’t help. But in recent months, the company’s sales have shot up, thanks to more locally friendly models like Kwid, Triber and Kiger — sales went up more than 30 per cent last month.
It has probably realised by now that the sweet spot for it would be to look at the value-conscious segment and offer Indians the features they prefer and locally suitable, not what designers in Paris think is right for the world. No wonder India marketing head Francisco Hidalgo said, “The new Renault Duster reflects exactly what the Indian customers expect today: strong performance, real-world durability and everyday usability…the SUV is engineered for how India actually drives.”
This line of re-strategising is also pretty evident in the price range of Duster unveiled on Tuesday — turbo petrol prices starting at 10.49 lakh rupees. There are also subscription offers, in tune with the trend in the market.