Buoyed by an encouraging response in the domestic market, Renault India on Tuesday said that it has started exporting its latest SUV ‘Triber’ to South African markets. The company said that it has stopped producing diesel vehicles in India and would hence focus only on petrol models in future.
It also said that it will launch BS VI version of Triber and other models mid-January and a new sub-four metre car in the second half of 2020. “We are proud to commence export of Triber to South African market with 600 units in our first batch. We will begin our next phase of Triber export in early February. Based on the response we will increase our export volume to that country,” said Venkatram Mamillapalle, country CEO and managing director, Renault India operations.
Speaking to reporters here, he said: “Originally, the company thought of exporting Triber to South Africa in early 2020. But given the demand from our South African dealers, we have started exporting the same in December itself. We are looking at other markets in the Asia Pacific region too and hope to do so in the next few months.”
He said exports contribute only 10% to our overall sales and we expect to end 2019 with 11,000 units in total, mainly Kwid. “We hope to do better in 2020 with Triber as well with a new car launch in second half of 2020,” he said, adding that the success of Kwid exports prompted us to do the same with Triber. Kwid is profitable in the South African market. Within three months of launch, Triber has got more than 20,000 customers in India and has a 45 day waiting period for its top model, he further said.
Responding to questions, Venkatram said: “Our focus will be on Triber in the early part of next year. Apart from BS VI variant, Triber will also be made available in AMT version early next year to give customers a choice to choose with.”
He hinted that the BS VI Triber models will cost 2% more than the existing version and “we will finalise the exact price hike at the time of launch”. To a specific question, he said: “We have decided to do away with diesel version of all models in India as they are not matching our economics.
With BS VI, the acquisition cost of diesel version will be more and hence we have stopped producing diesel cars in India during this month. Diesel models anyway were not so big in our overall portfolio as compared to our peers. Our focus will be on petrol-driven products only in India.” Similarly, the company also stopped producing its MPV Lodgy, which failed to get enough customers despite the company’s efforts in India, he added.
On the new products launch, he said: “We will be launching a sub-4 metre model in the second half of 2020 and will launch an electric vehicle by the end of 2021 or early 2022. We have decided not to crowd the market with frequent launch of new cars rather ensure that every model is profitable for both the company and dealers. With Triber, our dealers are happy and also become profitable.”
On the dealer network, he said though the company planned to have around 293 dealers by 2019-end from 258, but given the slowdown over the last few quarters, we have decided to go slow on adding dealers and end the calender with 267 only. “However, we hope to increase the same to 350-370 in 2020,” he said. On the overall sales for 2019, he said with the success of Triber, the company will post a moderate single digit growth in 2019. “We are looking at selling over 40,000 Triber in 2020 and hope to do better with a new car launch in second half,” he added.
