2012 Renault Duster SUV Pre-Launch Advertisement for India

Renault India is betting big on the Duster SUV, that the French automaker plans to launch in the country on the 4th of July, 2012. Renault has begun sending out emails to prospective Duster customers across the country even as many Renault dealers across India have already begun accepting bookings for this hot new product. Renault has chosen to position the duster SUV as an alternative to sedans, and this is quite evident in the pre-launch advertisement which shows sedan owners glum about not owning a Duster SUV, which is shown performing a variety of off road activities, the exclusive preserve of an SUV.

2012 Renault Duster SUV

Incidentally, this is the second time that a car maker in India is positioning its product as an alternate to the sedans. Mahindra, when it launched the Xylo a couple of years ago, also ran a marketing campaign positioning the Xylo as a “sedan killer”. The Xylo has been a reasonable success for Mahindra and Renault would definitely want to do better than that since it has a lot riding on the Duster. The 2012 Duster will be Renault’s fourth launch in India, with the manufacturing of the SUV happening at the Renault-Nissan joint manufacturing facility at Oragadam, off Chennai.

No less than 8 variants of the Duster SUV will be released in India. A petrol engine and a diesel engine(in 2 states of tune) will power the Duster. The petrol variant of the SUV will come in RxE and RxL trims and will be positioned as the entry level variant at an anticipated price of about 7.2 lakh rupees. The diesel engined models on the other hand will have three variants each, RxE, RxL and RxZ. The diesel engine will comes in 2 states of tune, a 85 Bhp version and an 108 Bhp version. While the lower powered diesel version will share a 5 speed manual gearbox with the petrol engine, the more powerful diesel variant will get a six speed stick shifter.

Ironically, the Duster SUV will be available only in front wheel guise across the model range, even though the pre-launch Ad shows the Duster indulging in plenty of off road theatrics. Equipment level on the top end Duster SUV will include ABS, Airbags and reverse parking sensors, to name the key features. The Duster SUV is a highly successful model that Renault’s low cost arm Dacia has designed and developed, mainly for emerging markets. In India, pricing will be the key to this SUV’s success.