In order to increase its market share, Renault India is aiming to launch two all-new cars in the country in 2015. The company will launch the Lodgy MPV in early 2015, while the XBA compact hatchback will be launched in the second half of 2015. The company is also planning to increase its dealership network, and is focusing more on Tier II and Tier III cities.
The XBA platform based hatchback will be the cheapest Renault in India, and the company needs to have a good number of dealerships in semi-urban and rural regions to increase its sales. The XBA will be priced under Rs. 4 lakh and will rival against the likes of Maruti Suzuki Alto K10, Celerio, Hyundai Eon, Datsun Go and others.
Currently, the Pulse hatchback is the cheapest Renault car available in the Indian car market and is priced over Rs. 4 lakh. Unlike the Pulse and Scala, the XBA will be based on an all-new platform. It will be built on the CMF platform, which will also underpin the Datsun RediGo hatchback which is scheduled to be launched in India in 2015. The XBA has already been spotted several times during its test rounds on Indian roads, and will be powered by an 800cc petrol engine.
The upcoming Lodgy MPV will rival against the likes of Honda Mobilio, Maruti Ertiga and Nissan Evalia. It will be offered in diesel guise, which is propelled by a 1.5-litre dCi engine that offers two states of tunes- 85PS and 110PS. Power is transmitted to the front wheels via a five-speed manual gearbox.
