The sagging sales of Mahindra Renault Logan, the mid-sized sedan that made its debut in the Indian market in May 2007, might pick up once again in 2009 and 2010 as the joint venture partners gear up to launch a facelift version of Logan this year followed by a completely new Logan next year. The company is also working on a new car based on the Logan platform that will help it to consolidate its position in the sedan segment.
?The company had planned to ramp up production in 2008 from 30,000 units to 40,000 units. However, the market started tanking since the middle of last year and the company could manage to sell only 40,000 units ever since its launch in May 3, 2007 as against the earlier set target of 40,000 units in 2008-09 alone,? says Ashish Sinharoy, vice president, corporate affairs, Renault India.
According to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers?, the company sold mere 11,453 units between April and January 2008-09 vis-?-vis 20,072 units in the corresponding period of the last financial year, a dip of 42.9%.
?However, the company is coming up with a face lift variant of Logan this year and a completely refurbished Logan next year which will help sales to pick up once again,? he says without divulging further details about the new variant.
Sales of Logan went down by a whopping 74.1% in January at 597 units as compared to 2,301 units in the corresponding month last year. Consequently, its market share in the mid-size sedan segment in India declined from 11.2% in January 2008 to 2.96% last month.
According to Sinharoy, the joint venture partners are working on a completely new product based on the Logan platform and a decision to this effect will be taken in a three month?s time. ?Once the product is decided, it will take at least a year and a two to roll it out,? he says.
?Mahindra Renault?s poor performance in the segment over the last few months is largely because of the single product that the company has been offering in the category for almost two years now. This restricts the growth potential. However, once the new product comes in, there is a possibility that the company will gain its foothold in the segment,? says an analyst.