Renault-Nissan Working On Really Low Cost Car
Last week, when talking about Volkswagen’s future $10,00o low-cost car, we said that “is rumored to work on something that costs about half.” Guess it is no longer a rumor. Reuters writes that Gerard Detourbet , the man behind Renault’s Logan program, is in Chennai, India, to work on a real budget car, costing about half of Volkswagen’s targeted price. India is the battlefield for low-cost cars. And that’s not because of Tata’s Nano.
Most of Suzuki’s commanding market share in India goes on account of cars costing less than 250,000 rupees ( $4,600) This segment bring Suzuki “1 million registrations a year in a market of 2.6 million,” Reuters says. Hyundai’s inroads into the India market are powered by its 300,000 rupee ($5,500) Eon mini.
Renault’s new “sub-entry” architecture will offer roomier cars for a similar price tag and spawn at least one additional model for Nissan, Detourbet told Reuters.
Despite tanking sales in Europe, Renault recorded a small auto division profit in the first half of 2012, mainly due to its low-cost car program. Peugeot lost $870 million in the same period. Detourbet, a mathematician by trade, helped Renault to achieve the allegedly impossible: How to make big money with small cars.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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And those 10 - series tires look ridiculous, too. Why do 'designers' draw that crap anymore? The rest of the car looks like a Mark I Plymouth Sebring.
Renault has already started doing this in South America with their horrible Clio 2 facelift, with the most brutal cost-cutting ever. Like removing speakers, cables exposed on the trunk, very cheap plastics, and redesigning parts of the car to reduce production costs. They even charge hundreds of dollars for fancy "customization" stickers which they don't even put correctly. I guess the Indian car will be something like this, although I don't see why they have to design the car from scratch instead of taking an existing model and butcher it. Nevertheless, I don't think these cheap cars are a good idea, especially for Nissan. At one point you end up with a rickshaw. Although those DO sell well in India...