When French car maker Renault launched the Kwid in the domestic market in September 2015, the company had the capacity to manufacture 6,000 units of the vehicle every month at its Chennai plant.
Three months after the launch, the French car maker is increasing the capacity by 10,000 units due to the huge response it has got from the customers in terms of large number of bookings.
Till January, Kwid has received more than 85,000 confirmed bookings from across the country and the dealers in the metro cities confirmed that waiting period for the vehicles ranges between 4-5 months.
During the October-December period, Renault sold 17,932 units of the vehicle and the same for December stood at 6,888 units. An official of the company said that component suppliers have been asked to ramp up their supplies post October.
In the October-December period the volumes Maruti’s Alto, the undisputed leader in the segment for years, decreased by 0.73% y-o-y to 67,445 units. While the same for Hyundai’s Eon increased by 2% y-o-y to 20,196 units from the corresponding period in FY15.
The good response to Kwid comes at a time when the mini car segment is not growing due to low income growth in the rural areas. According to Abdul Majeed, partner, Price WaterHouse Coopers, the mini car segment saw the launch of a new car after a long time and Renault has managed to design the car like a mini SUV which helps attract customers.
“Renault also priced the car competitively as the company wants to use this car to get into smaller cities and towns,” Majeed said.
Though Maruti’s Alto did not register any decline in volumes but industry experts believe that out of the 85,000 bookings that Kwid received almost half of them could have come from potential Alto customers.
