What The New Duster Needs To Do For Renault In India

So, it’s official now. French car major Renault will bring back the Duster nameplate to its portfolio in India. The Duster will be one of the planned four new offerings from Renault India in two years, starting with the refreshed Triber in July 2025, but its significance may be far bigger than all the other three put together.

That’s because, with the Duster and its strong brand equity, Renault has a chance to also reposition itself in the minds of Indian customers. “Unfortunately, Renault has not been able to build the brand image, in spite of actually having very good vehicles like the Kwid, the Kiger, and the Triber,” Avik Chattopadhay, Co-founder and Partner, Expereal, a brand strategy and solutions consultancy told ACKO Drive.

The brand strategist, and automotive product planning expert, who also had a stint at Maruti Suzuki India, was involved in the launch of models like the Zen, and Swift. Both popular models, but the Swift was instrumental also to make customers look at Mauruti, which till then was popular mainly for its entry-level small cars, in a different light. Explaining the Swift’s influence in the consumer’s mind, Chattopadhyay said, “The Swift actually suddenly positioned Maruti also as, ‘wow, these guys are young, these guys are smart. Okay, they're basically talking our language. They are relating to us. Yeah, we can relate to the badge’.”

Renault may have a similar opportunity in the new Duster.

The Duster “frenzy” and the “SUV democratisation” 

Another industry professional recalls that there was a “customer frenzy” for the SUV, first launched in July 2012. To the extent that in some Renault showrooms, police had to intervene and clear the roads of the large number of vehicles parked by people who came to check out the then new Duster. The introduction of an AWD (All-Wheel Drive) variant in September 2014 completed the Duster’s SUV quotient.

The key reason for the Duster’s major appeal was that as a modern SUV it defined what is now popular as the ‘midsize SUV’ segment in India. “With its features and value proposition, in a way the Duster democratised the SUV in India,” said the industry professional. An entry-level price of just a little over ₹7 lakh also added to the first generation Duster’s competitiveness.      

Not only in India, the Duster was a game-changer for Renault globally, particularly in emerging markets. Originally a Dacia (a Renault-owned Romanian brand), the Duster sold over a million units within four years of its launch in 2010. According to another professional who was involved in Renault-Nissan Alliance activities, the Duster’s market response in India far exceeded the internal projections. To the extent that the OEM had to accelerate its plans for enhancing the model’s localisation levels.

The Duster reportedly crossed the one lakh units sales milestone in less than 2 years. That’s more than double of Renault India’s 2024 total sales, which stood at 41,729 units.

Big Ambitions for India

Renault’s fortunes in India have seen a mixed trend. Powered by the Duster, and the entry-level model Kwid, launched in 2015, Renault India had entered the ‘Top 5’ club of the French car major globally, in terms of sales. It ended 2024, the Indian subsidiary held the 13th position globally, with a market share of .9 per cent.

The global COVID pandemic, and the Russia-Ukraine war also affected Renault’s global plans significantly, also forcing it to focus on protecting its turf in its home region of Europe. Now, it is refocusing on markets outside Europe, and India is seen as a major pillar for the global growth strategy. In August this year, Renault said India is ‘a central pillar of the Group's global strategy and of the Renault brand internationally’.

Its investment to fully acquire the 400,000 cars per annum manufacturing plant in Oragadam, Chennai, and appointment of a new CEO for all Renault operations in India, are two of the key reflections of Renault’s plans to play a bigger game in India, which it sees as having the potential to be its biggest market globally by 2030. Currently, home market France, where it sold 5.4 lakh vehicles last year to have a 26 per cent market share, is its largest.

“Of course India is a much bigger country than France, and we have a plant that now belongs fully to us. In the mid-term if we get to full capacity of the plant and selling those cars, and with the ambition of market share that we have, I think in a few years it's quite feasible to consider that India will be the number one market in the world for Renault,” Francisco Hidalgo Marques, VP - Marketing and Sales, Renault India told ACKO Drive in an interview, after the launch of the refreshed Triber in July this year.

The third-generation Duster, scheduled for an unveiling on 26th January, 2026, will have a major responsibility to shoulder under its maker’s ‘International Game Plan 2027’ strategy. The Duster’s brand equity may help as the foundation for the new avatar of the SUV, but it will have a more challenging job to do compared to its predecessor.

In 2012, the SUV market was in a very nascent stage. “Sedans were there everywhere in India. And SUVs, not so much. In fact one out of ten cars was an SUV then. Then came Duster. And it didn’t just launch, it defined the segment,” said Yudhvir Singh, Aftersales & Customer Care Director, Renault India, in the ‘Renault R Talk’ series. But now, the scenario is totally different. SUVs, of all types, contribute to over 60 per cent of the Indian Passenger Vehicle (PV) segment. The midsize SUV segment contributes an estimated 25 per cent of the SUV market.

“Earlier it (Duster) defined the (SUV) space, now it has to redefine itself in the space,” said Chattopadhyay. And that will have to be done by more than just fancy features.