Renault Kwid, the popular small car from the French automaker has recently crossed one lakh sales milestone in India. It has been over a year since Renault India launched the Kwid small car in the country and right from the word go the car has been in huge success. Less than a couple of months ago the company had announced its aim to sell one lakh cars in India by end of 2016, and this achievement by Kwid is surely a major step in realising that target.
The Renault Kwid has been the biggest contributor to the company's sales in India. In fact, back in September, Sumit Sawhney, CEO and MD Renault India had said, "So far from January to August 2016, we have sold 87,000 cars out of which 65,000 units are Kwid." Renault has also launched two new versions of the Kwid in India this year - the more powerful, Kwid 1.0-litre variant and the Kwid Easy-R that comes with an automated manual transmission (AMT) unit. And we have reviewed both of them. Moreover, the addition of these two new variants has further added to the car's popularity and demand.
As impressive as these numbers are, we know that it will further grow considering the company is also working on getting the Kwid ready for export markets. While the car is also manufactured in Brazil, according to Carlos Ghosn, Chairman and CEO, Renault-Nissan Alliance, India will be looked at as an export hub for the Kwid. As we know so far, initially, the Kwid will be exported to the SAARC countries - Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh.
Coming to the car itself, the standard Renault Kwid is powered by the company's tried and tested 799cc three-cylinder petrol engine that makes 53bhp and develops 72Nm of peak torque. On the other hand, the Kwid 1.0-litre version is powered by a 999cc three-cylinder petrol engine the churns out 67bhp and develops 91Nm of peak torque. Both these model come mated to a 5-speed manual gearbox as standard, whereas, it is the latter gets the option of an AMT unit.
In India, the Reuault Kwid competes with the likes of Maruti Suzuki's Alto K10 and Celerio, Hyundai's i10 and to an extent even the Tata Tiago. Currently, Renault is selling the Kwid priced at Rs. 2.64 Lakh to Rs. 3.95 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi).
Disclosure: NDTV's CarAndBike.com is a partner with Renault India Private Limited
