RENAULT 2 LAST (BCM33)

In fact, Sawhney is so bullish about Lodgy that he In fact, Sawhney is so bullish about Lodgy that hesaid the company will close the year with 1,000 units a month,adding a World Edition Lodgy will be rolled out this month. Already over 75,000 Kwids are on the road, while thenumber for Duster is over 1.5 lakh since the launch four yearsago, he said. Incidentally, Lodgy, which is getting lots of demandfrom fleet operators now, has the highest mileage in thesegment, having notched a whopping 47 kmpl on a test-drivefrom Delhi to Mumbai, Sawhney, who was part of the launch teamof the Tavera for GM India, said. The average mileage is over 15 kmpl on any roadcondition, he said. Asked about capacity addition to meet the risingdemand, he said the company has added a third shift at theChennai plant to take the monthly throughput to over 12,000now, including exports. But he declined to offer firm sale target for theKwid, saying "I will be perfectly happy if we sell more than10,000 units a month." Sawhney said the company will be launching a 1000-ccor 1-Liter Kwid engine next week. The company has entered theSri Lankan market in June and will be foraying into Nepal thismonth itself and Bhutan and Bangladesh before December. The company will also have an AMT (automated manualtransmission) version of the Kwid be Diwali. He said Renault will also begin SKD (semi-knockeddown) production of the Kwid in Brazil and South Africa nextyear. Terming the Kwid as the biggest Make in India successstory, Sawhney said the model, which was the first global carthat the Renault has ever launched outside Europe in its 118years of history, has 98 per cent local sourcing, the highestamong the foreign carmakers in the country. Since its entry five years ago with a plant inChennai, Renault-Nissan Alliance has invested over Rs 6,100crore into the facility at Oragadam that has an installedcapacity of 4,80,000 units per annum, and has become thelargest European car maker in the country. Apart from the Duster, Kwid, and Lodgy, the companysells four more imported/assembled models in the country –the premium sedans Fluence and Scala, luxury SUV Koleos, andthe premium compact the Pulse. PTI BEN RSY ABKBAS