This week Renault launched its small car, the Kwid, in India. Purposefully built for the emerging markets, the Kwid is the first vehicle to come out of the Renault-Nissan Alliance Team’s new CMF-A platform—Common Module Family—a system which allows Renault and Nissan to build a wider range of cars from a smaller pool of parts. It will primarily compete with Maruti Alto 800 and Hyundai Eon. From purely a product point of view, the Kwid seems to have some advantages over its competitors. One, its SUV-inspired stance ensures that it looks bigger than it actually is. Two, it gets the most spacious cabin in the segment. Three, the claimed fuel-efficiency of the Kwid is the highest among the three. Four, it gets goodies such as a touchscreen media navigation system that is generally found in cars a segment higher. On the downside, Renault (160+) doesn’t have the dealership strength of Maruti (1,500+) or Hyundai (600+). So as to reach out to the masses, the company has launched the Kwid Virtual Showroom—a live sales demonstration portal—and a Kwid App using which customers can book the car. It remains to be seen if Renault will be able to repeat the Duster success with the Kwid.
