Renault Confirm 2 SUVs For India; Duster, Duster 7-Seater Most Likely Candidates | V3Cars

Return Of The Renault Duster — Now Highly Likely

Considering that the vehicle will be long enough to allow for the development of a 3-row version, it’s safe to say that they will enter the highly-competitive C-segment SUV space. Moreover, with the immense success and popularity of the Duster brand in India, we can say with high confidence that the 5-seat version will resurrect the Duster nameplate.

Renault Grand Duster — 7-Seat Version (An Example)

It would be wise for Renault to let the larger, 7-seat version of the SUV to also carry a variation of the Duster badge to capitalise on the brand recall. Assigning it a completely different name will put a lot of pressure on the 3-row SUV to carve out a niche for itself and lead to higher marketing expenses for Renault.

For example, the brand recall of the Vitara helped the Vitara Brezza establish itself but once it had gained enough ground, Maruti dropped the Vitara name. Then, the Grand Vitara borrowed it to once again capitalise on the Vitara legacy. In a similar fashion, we have seen the Dzire borrow the Swift name in its early years to help it make a name for itself in the industry. Once it was successful enough, it too dropped the Swift moniker and now only sells as Dzire.

Similarly, Grand Duster or something that has ‘Duster’ as part of the name will greatly help Renault make the most of the brand recall when attempting to capture the mindshare of the target audience.

Also Read: Hyundai Creta Waiting Period – March 2024

2024 Hyundai Creta N Line Launched At Rs. 16.82 Lakh

Note: If You Want to Buy a New Car, Calculate Car Loan EMI with V3Cars

Renault Duster Launch Timeline — 5-Seat, 7-Seat

In terms of timelines, the officials were extremely vague and couldn’t put a finger on a tentative deadline. This suggests that the project is completely new and recently conceived. Thus, the timeline is difficult to estimate even for Renault-Nissan.

Since they are planning to Indianize the cars, we expect a lot of fresh R&D inputs coming from their Indian engineers. This could take a good while and the best case is that we may see the Duster 5-seat go on sale sometime late in 2025. The development and positioning for the 7-seat version may take 6 months or so after the launch of the Duster 5-seat.

Renault Duster — Expected Engine Specs

Since Renault Nissan Alliance don’t have any suitable engines currently in production in India to serve these vehicles, it’s difficult to speculate what powertrain options we could see in these cars. The demonization of the diesel engines takes the fan favourite 1.5L diesel out of the equation. A 1.3L turbo petrol is a likely candidate as Mercedes already offer this engine in India in the A-Class sedan and GLA SUV.

While the engine itself has adequate power and torque to haul 7 occupants at highway speeds, it may come across as underpowered and low on displacement. The potent 1.5L turbo petrol engines from Hyundai-Kia and Skoda-Volkswagen have set new benchmarks. The mass market 1.5L normal petrol engine may come across as bland and one without a USP.

Renault Duster 2025 — Verdict

So, Renault are quite in a pickle in terms of engine choices for the mid and large size Duster. By then, Tata Curvv and Citroen Basalt will also have entered the space and found their niche. Duster will have a tough task ahead of it when it goes on sale in India but its Nissan cousins will have an even tougher task. They don’t even have a decent brand recall to count on. Their Kicks and Terrano, both failed to sell in numbers large enough to establish themselves in the C-segment SUV space.

Also Read: Mahindra Bolero CSD Price List — Price Comparison w/ Ex-Showroom

Note: Calculate Car Fuel Cost with V3Cars for India and Other Countries