The popular Indian compact SUV market is getting highly competitive with the advent of new model launches. The heavy demands for the successful models in this Indian segment have propelled the car majors of the country to introduce their representatives in the segment intensifying the competition. The advent of new models has resulted in the drop of demands for the older models. This is also true for the highly successful compact SUV, the Renault Duster.
The Renault Duster enjoyed outstanding response and great sales ever since its launch in India. However, of late its sales rates have dropped owing to the increasing competition. Things are now even more serious for the French car maker, as two top selling car majors of India enter the segment. The country’s second largest car maker Hyundai has newly launched its Creta in the segment, while the leading auto giant Maruti Suzuki is days away from launching its S-Cross. Both these new models are expected to eat into the demands of the popular Renault Duster.
Thus, Renault India is reportedly busy readying up a new refreshed model of the Duster to freshen up the interest of the Indian buyers. The new Duster facelift is expected to hit the market by the end of 2015.
The French auto maker had recently updated the Duster in the month of March this year, but as market rivalry gets worse, another update is expected this year itself. The new Renault Duster will get noteworthy exterior updates, while the refreshed interiors will get additional equipments. As per the reports, the compact SUV will also get a dual-clutch transmission.
Meanwhile, Renault India is busy with its upcoming big new launch, the Kwid hatchback which is expected to launch sometime in September this year before the Indian festive season. The new Duster is expected to make it a couple of months after the Kwid’s arrival.
The refreshed new Renault Duster is expected to come with sporty new look, but will not look drastically different, as it will be just a facelift. Reports say that the facelift Duster will be borrowing design cues from the Adventure Edition model. However, exact design or feature update information is yet not available.
Under the hood, the Renault Duster facelift is expected to be changed much. It is expected to get powered by the same 1.6 liter petrol and 1.5 liter diesel motor, although the company could be tweaking them for enhanced fuel efficiency and performance. The expected real change would be a 6 speed dual-clutch transmission called the ‘Efficient Dual Clutch’ on the 2WD diesel models. Renault is expected to introduce this transmission in order to fight with the automatic diesel variants of the new Hyundai Creta. This transmission’s introduction on the Duster 4WD version is not reported as yet.
The new refreshed Renault Duster is expected to launch in the Indian market sometime in the month of November this year. More details on the upcoming facelift Duster are expected pretty soon.