Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) on Monday said it re-branded the Logan, its sole product under its erstwhile joint venture (JV) with French car maker Renault, as Verito. The car will also drop the Renault tag and sport the M&M badge and emblem.

Mahindra Renault or MRPL was established in 2005 as a 51:49 JV between M&M and Renault to manufacture and sell the Logan. In April 2010, the two companies parted ways, after the Logan saw significant fall in volumes. M&M bought Renault?s equity stake in MRPL, resulting in MRPL becoming a 100% Mahindra group-owned company.

Following this, M&M was allowed to continue with the Renault name and logo on the Logan till the end of 2010.

Since the takeover, M&M has undertaken steps to revive Logan?s volumes, with the first major step being the price rationalisation that it undertook on the model immediately after Renault?s exit. The step saw positive impact on the volumes of the car, with it touching the levels of over 1,000 units, from less than 500 units in the last days of the JV.?

Logan has been in the market since 2007. It is a Dacia design and was developed with the East European market in mind, where it was a successful low-cost car. The car is manufactured at M&M?s plant in Nashik. In an earlier report, FE had quoted Rajesh Jejurikar, chief executive, automotive division, M&M, saying that the Logan will see re-branding but not a facelift for now. He had said that the facelift on what is now the Verito will be seen in 2012. The company also has plans for a less than four metre-long ?Verito?, which Jejurikar had said was still in the development stage, and for a completely new product on the ?Logan? platform, for which it had said it is in talks with Renault. Shares of M&M were marginally up on the BSE on Monday to close at R767.65. Abdul Majeed, leader, automotive practice, PricewaterhouseCoopers, said, ?M&M will have to re-look at the model and make changes to prepare it against competition. Though re-branding will definitely help them a bit, cost, efficiency and looks of the vehicle are the core decision parameters for a buyer.?

Ssangyong sales highest in 3 years

Less than a month after M&M completed its acquisition of 70% stake in the court-held South-Korean sports utility vehicle maker Ssangyong Motor Company, the takeover is already reaping benefits. Ssangyong on Monday said that its sales in March alone were more than 10,000 units, the highest since 2007. It also achieved $100 million in exports. During the first quarter of this year, the company sold 24,741 units of its vehicles including 9,974 units in the Korean market and 14,767 units in exports (CKD included), recording 620.5 billion KRW of sales income.