These new initiatives will help Renault widen its reach in smaller towns and rural areas.
Renault launched its Experience Days campaign in an attempt to widen its reach in smaller towns and rural areas. This campaign will include Showroom on Wheels and Workshop on Wheels services which are essentially mobile showrooms and service centres.
The Showroom on Wheels, which will serve as an extension of Renault’s current dealership network, will help boost the reach and sales of the brand in the country. Currently, it has a network of over 450 dealerships and over 500 service centres, and Workshop on Wheels will add more than 230 service centres to the portfolio.
Its current line-up – Kwid, Triber and Kiger – is designed for India as all these have good ground clearance and all cost under Rs 10 lakh. At this price point, Renault would benefit from the additional sales from small towns and rural areas. In 2023, Renault saw a year-on-year decline in sales of around 35 percent with less than 30,000 units sold, whereas its competitors like Tata Motors, Hyundai and Maruti Suzuki have seen a year-on-year growth of around 10 percent.
The Showroom on Wheels will display all of Renault’s portfolio and will also have a separate air-conditioned unit that will also have the accessories on display. Renault says that customers will be able to test drive, book and even finance the vehicles from these mobile showrooms. A similar initiative was undertaken by Maruti Suzuki with the mobile Nexa terminal in 2019. The brand deployed the showroom on wheels to markets around the country where Nexa dealerships were not present.
The Workshop on Wheels will allow customers to get basic service and maintenance for their Renault cars at their homes. This service will use a mobile workshop equipped with basic machinery required by the service personnel. This service at home facility is already being provided by brands like Maruti Suzuki, MG Motor, Tata Motors and Hyundai.
Earlier this year, Renault and its alliance partner Nissan announced an investment of Rs 5,300 crore in the Indian market. This has been done to introduce six new locally produced models between the two brands. Four of these would be based on the CMF-B platform and spawn the upcoming Duster and its seven-seat iteration as well as their Nissan counterparts. The remaining two will be based on the CMF-A platform and would form the basis of the Kwid EV, which is likely to launch by 2025.
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