Mahindra Renault to drive Logan in overseas mkts

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After over a year of its operations in India, Mahindra Renault, the joint venture between homegrown auto major Mahindra & Mahindra and French carmaker Renault, is now planning to export Logan to countries like South Africa. "The car is under homologation phase in some neighbouring countries and South Africa where right-hand driving is in vogue. Once it is done, we will commence export of the wide-bodied sedan in the next quarter," said Nalin Mehta, chief operating officer of Mahindra Renault.

"The company would export the vehicle to countries where M&M and Renault already have strong presence and would utilise the existing dealership networks there to sell Logan," he added.

According to Mehta, the product would be sold in different markets under different brand. "It could be under the Renault badge in markets where the French firm has a strong presence or it could be sold as Marinara-Renault in the new markets," he said while launching the limited edition of Logan.

The company will initially manufacture 500 units of Logan Edge launched on Wednesday. The vehicle, which comes in five variants including three petrol and two diesels, is priced between Rs 4.99 lakh and Rs 7.15 lakh. Banking on the growing demand of CNG vehicles, the company is set to roll-out the CNG variant of Logan. "The CNG Logan is already being made available to limited customers and once there is sufficient volume, we will launch it in a big way in next two-three months," Mehta said, adding that the car would be priced at Rs 45,000 higher than the existing Logan which would mean that it would be priced around Rs 5 lakh.

The current capacity at its Nasik facility is about 25,000 units of Logan in a single shift in a year and the company could ramp it further as the demand picks up.

The company sold 25,891 units of Logan, which competes with Maruti Swift DZire, Tata Indigo and Hyundai Accent, and garnered a market share of 11.47% in the A3 or the mid–size sedan segment in 2007-08. However, during the first quarter of this fiscal, sale of Logan declined by 11.46% at 4,595 units as compared to 5,167 units during the same period last fiscal. This is despite the fact the segment witnessed a growth of 14.09% in the April-June quarter at 59,631 units as compared to 52,267 units in the corresponding quarter last year.