Renault in premium SUV race, Koleos debuts at Rs 23 lakh

French car maker Renault has chosen India as the first country to roll out its SUV- Koleos. The new SUV is a second offering from Renault after the Fluence, priced at 23 lakhs. Koleos will compete with Toyota Fortuner, BMW X1 and Mitsubishi Outlander.

The car comes with a 2 litre diesel engine, one variant and is available only as an automatic. After its world debut in India, it is heading next to China.

Marc Nassif, managing director of Renault India said, “We have kept only one variant which is fully loaded. We believe that our customers would request for that kind of a product.”

Renault is rolling out the Koleos from its Chennai unit. In order to bring down the operational costs, the company wants to localise the engine and transmission from 2012.

Renault is also looking at an agressive expansion strategy and hopes to roll out at least one lakh units by 2012 end.

Renault aims to make India the exclusive manufacturing and export hub of its right-hand sport utility vehicle Duster. It plans ti launch this low-cost SUV in the price bracket of Rs 10 lakh by mid-2012.

In a recent statement given to Economic Times, a person close to the development said, “India will be the exclusive manufacturing hub for all the right hand drive markets for Duster, including UK.”

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