"Every model which we launch next year will have a diesel version," said Len Curran, Renault India vice president for sales and marketing. "Our focus is on diesel cars," Curran said.
Last year, 27 percent of the 2.52 million passenger cars of diesel cars accounted for sold in India and the Society for Indian Automobile Manufacturers ( SIAM), the apex lobby for the auto industry, expects this share to go up to 33 percent by the end of this fiscal.
A strategic move has been made by Renault at a time when the auto industry is facing a rough patch, following falling passenger car sales due to high fuel cost and soaring interest rates. Petrol prices were hiked five times this year, whereas diesel remained stable.
Also, the weakening of the Indian rupee against the US dollar has added to the woes of carmakers, making import of components expensive and thereby pushing up input costs.
Renault has plans to launch Pulse, a hatchback in B segment, at the New Delhi Auto Expo in January 2012. In the second half of the next year, it will launch Duster, an SUV. In the fourth quarter of the year, it will roll out a sedan.
The car maker, which entered India in 2005, says it expects India to become the world's fourth-biggest car market within three years. In March 2010, the Renault-Nissan Alliance opened its unit in Chennai that has a capacity to produce 400,000 cars a year.
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