Renault Pulse and Scala's Production Stopped Temporarily

Update: The company seems to have resumed the production of both Pulse and Scala, since Renault India, recently, launched the updated model of Pulse. Clarifying its stand on the production of the two cars, the company said, "The production numbers do not reflect our product strategy. Renault India is currently producing both Scala and Pulse and they will continue to be in our product portfolio going forward."

Renault India has been struggling to amass decent sales; except for the Duster compact SUV, no other car has been able to fetch volumes for the company. In fact, the French carmaker could not even manage to sell a single unit of its hatchback - the Pulse - in January, 2015. The other cars aren't performing spectacularly well either; Renault sold 74 units of Scala, 41 units of Fluence and 3 units of Koleos in the same period. The Duster, with 3,085 units, remained the top-selling Renault car in India.

Owing to the poor demand for its cars, Renault has temporarily suspended the production of two of its mass-segment cars - the Pulse and Scala, according to a report published in Business Standard. The last time Scala was manufactured in May, 2014, when 183 units of the car were produced. As far as the Pulse is concerned, it was last manufactured in October, 2014.

Though the company hasn't said anything about discontinuing these cars, the production halt is probably because of the availability of more-than-enough stock. Furthermore, if rumours are to be believed, the company is working on the facelifted models of Scala and Pulse, which might be launched in the coming months.

However, with such low numbers, I am not quite sure if the company will have the confidence to attempt bringing in the updated models. That said, the company's should focus on its upcoming cars - the Lodgy MPV and the small 800cc hatchback - this year. The two aforementioned cars might do well since they will be all-new products, and not merely re-badged models like the Scala and Pulse.

For people not in the know, the Pulse and Scala are the re-badged versions of the Nissan Micra and Sunny, respectively. Interestingly, the Nissan twins of the Scala and Pulse also continue to fail in scoring decent sales numbers. Nissan managed to sell only 652 units of the Micra and 391 units of the Sunny i January, 2015 despite the fact that both the cars had received updates last year. So when the Sunny and Micra have failed to lure buyers, I think updating Scala and Pulse won't make sense.