Expected to launch this financial year.
Renault India is working on a facelift for the Duster, which was launched in India in July 2012. According to reports, the Duster facelift is expected to launch this financial year, but mostly in the next calendar year.
When asked about the Duster facelift, Mr. Sumit Sawhney, managing director and CEO of Renault India, told Indian Autos Blog -
There are a lot of innovations coming for the Duster. We launched the Duster Explore edition with 25 exterior and interior changes. Going forward, lifecycle management is very important for Duster. We will continue the evolution of the Duster.
One of the most important changes is the addition of an automated manual transmission (AMT), termed Easy-R AMT, to the diesel variant of the Duster. Renault India hopes to attract customers who are slowly shifting towards automatic transmission equipped crossovers such as the Mahindra Scorpio AT and the Hyundai Creta AT.
Since its launch in 2012, the Duster's segment has seen plenty of new arrivals such as the Nissan Terrano (badge-engineered Duster), Hyundai Creta and the Maruti S-Cross. As a result, sales of the Duster have witnessed a drop in recent months.
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When asked about the Duster's falling volumes, Mr. Sawhney said - "If you see the top 5 selling cars in the country all have gone in a sinusoidal wave fashion and not in a tangent." The company will be hoping to arrest falling volumes with the launch of the facelift equipped with the AMT.
