With sales of star performer Duster SUV languished, Renault needed something solidly consistent product. They decided to explore the entry level segment with Kwid and it turned out be a wonder car for Renault. Since its launch in September 2015, Kwid has been a solid performer and ended its first year in Indian market with 1.07 lakh units. While some of the carmakers found small car segment hard to crack Renault has proved that it’s pretty easy if have right product on offer.
The Kwid has achieved 1 lakh sales milestone in just 14 months and more than 50,000 units of the Kwid have been retailed from June to October this year. Thanks to Kwid’s overwhelming success, the French carmaker looks to surpass 5 percent market share within this year. This response might push Renault to export Kwid to foreign market; however it will commence to Bhutan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka during the initial phase.
What made Kwid so popular? It’s got the SUV-ish design with plastic black cladding, best in class space. It is loaded with handful of goodies like 7 inch MediaNAV touchscreen system with navigation, digital instrument cluster, twin glove box and much more. Kwid features 300 liters of boot space which enhances its practicality quotient a lot.
The Kwid was initially launched with a tri-cylinder 799cc petrol engine that delivers 53bhp of max output and 72Nm of peak torque. The latest edition received 1.0 liter version and comes fitted with 999cc that is good for 67bhp of max output and 91NM of peak torque. Both 0.8 litre and 1.0litre engines are accompanied by a 5-speed manual gearbox. However, recently the 1.0l version gets an automated manual transmission (AMT).
Renault Kwid starts at Rs. 2.64 lakh and go all the way to Rs. 4.25 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi) and it competes with Hyundai Eon, Maruti Suzuki Alto and Datsun Redi-go.
