Indian Autos blog

You won’t be shocked to learn that Dacia has been working on the next generation Logan for the past few years. What once started life as the ‘McDonalds of cars’ became a huge hit not only for farmers and traders in Romania, but also swept the floor clean in many other European markets.

As the Verito in India, the Logan’s brand equity has improved steadily. Mahindra, bullish about its future, decided make further investments through a cosmetic operation.

Nissan made announcements of reviving the Datsun brand to deliver low cost products to emerging markets like India, Russia and Indonesia. So it was obvious that Renault had to follow suit.

Now the French car maker seems to be directing its designers and engineers to work on a project for churning out an entry-level car which would take on the likes of Maruti Alto, Hyundai Eon, Chevrolet Spark, etc. Currently Pulse is the cheapest offering from Renault in India, which is nothing but a rebadged Nissan Micra.

Renault has many special editions of the Fluence around the globe. But a very interesting variant has shown up on our radar today.

Renault is expected to launch the Fluence Turbo in Argentina with a hugely powerful engine.

Dacia has introduced a cheaper, stripped out variant of the Duster in Germany. Obviously the Germans will not buy it like birthday candles because it sends the wrong message. So in order to hide the cheapness, Dacia has given it a cool name – Duster Ice Edition.

The Duster Ice Edition starts as low as € 12 290 (around 8.5 lakhs). For that money, you get front electric windows, roof rails, four airbags and central locking with remote control. That’s it!

To distinguish the Renault Duster arriving in India in next few months from the Dacia version sold in Europe, the French designers used a different front grille, lower intake, communication color, alloy wheels, mildly modified the central console and even introduced changes in the powertrain.

This was the model that was first shown to the Indian media at last year’s Renault Fluence key handover ceremony in New Delhi to the first batch of customers.

Quiet car launches are increasingly becoming a trend in the Indian auto sphere. The Fluidic i20 and Skoda Fabia Scout are testimony to the trend. Yet another car joins the list – Yes, it is the Pulse Petrol!

It is not like we did not see it coming. The Pulse petrol was expected since late last year. The Renault Pulse is essentially a Nissan Micra with a Renault badge on it. Considering the Nissan Micra has a petrol option, you can only imagine the ease of creating a Pulse petrol.

Financial Chronicle has reported that Renault’s Sunny twin would be christened Scela. As IndianAutosBlog.com readers would already know, the Mumbai design studio of Renault is working on the Nissan Sunny’s front and rear fascias to present it with a personality that is more Indian. The Scela may not be sold in markets outside India.

While Nissan has been introducing global cars in India with minimum or no exterior changes, Renault is rebadging and redesigning Nissan cars and selling them as Renaults in the affordable segments. The Pulse was the first product of the rebadging formula.

The war of small engines has begun. The increase in fuel price and strict emission norms has encouraged big automakers to invest in their R&D for the development of small engines with high power generation and good fuel economy. VVT and low inertia turbo charging has become a minimum requirement for most of the new engines developed.

Fiat’s turbocharged twin cylinder and Ford’s 1.0L EcoBoost are already in the market right now. But there seems to be a contender not far behind in Renault’s Energy TCe 90 engine.

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