It's a massive, massive day for Renault in India. The Duster has come back, and to tell you how important this car is for Renault, they have launched it in a way not seen before in the industry in a stadium. This is really big. I mean, the scale has been absolutely phenomenal. And talking to me about the Duster, the comeback and Renault India's new plans, I have with me Fabrice Cambolive, who is the CEO of the Renault brand and of course the chief growth officer. Fabrice, congratulations. Good to see you again after a long time.
Yeah. Thanks for being here with us.
Yeah. Now you know, just looking at the scale of this launch, I've never seen something like this in a stadium – absolutely packed. I think it's a clear message that you are serious about India now after a long time. Yeah, the clear message is that Renault is India and India is Renault, right? Because we've been here for 20 years, and of course Duster was one of our icons, and we wanted to come back with a good Duster – the best Duster we ever made. Best Duster in terms of engine – you see the hybrid – best Duster in terms of connectivity – you saw Google inside – and of course a bold design like the engine.
Yes. But you know, just coming back to the Duster – clearly there's been a bit of a gap. This has been the icon. What are the lessons you've learned from the last Duster? Obviously there have been a few mistakes made along the way. I mean, I think it should have had a longer life cycle. But with your comeback right now, what's going to be different? When you are in India, the first lesson you have to learn is the speed.
Speed means you have to come with products which are new every two years. That's why what we decided to do is to increase the speed of the way we are developing our cars. The second point is that this Duster is made in India by Indians. Of course, we are global, we are international, we've got cross-car line all around the world, but we decided to adjust this Duster to the consumer needs. What is important here in India now is the growth of hybrid technology and the SUV growth, which is still very important. We decided to do that with Indian input. What we learn, and what we demonstrated in the past, is that we are the best in ride and handling. I can assure you that when you test drive the car, you will see that we never lost our magic recipe to make a very good dynamic car. And coming back to your question about launching a model every two years – yes, we need to be present not only every two years but every year with new models. How we can achieve that within the Renault brand now is because we have increased the speed of our development by moving out of Europe with big synergies between regions. India is part of a global network with Latin America, Turkey, Morocco, Korea, which enables us to gain traction and speed. That's why I can tell you that you will have a lot of novelties in the coming two years in India.
Right? So, obviously other segments. I imagine that with the new taxes, you might have realized there's a sub-four-meter segment still very important. You have the Kiger over there, but do you think you need a more Duster-like body style in that segment? Because that really is the magic for you all, isn't it?
I think this is a good suggestion. We will work on that. You have a lot of information and you are one of the greatest journalists in India regarding automotive. I take your suggestion.
That's a very fair comment. Right, okay, fine. And just one more thing – talking about hybrid technology, this again was a surprise. So clearly you are working with Horse? And what is your strategy to outsource it from another company altogether? How does this work? And do you think there will need to be some localization of this powertrain going forward?
I think you have each time to adjust the model in the region you are in. But now we don't have a global car in the world; we have a global cross-carline strategy and direction. One of the directions is of course electrification. The capacity to work with Horse is enabling us to reach more scale and to decrease the cost of this technology, because at the end, the hybrid tomorrow will replace the diesel. And if we want to do that, we have to do it at the right price.
Right? So it will be at a good price.
It will be at a very competitive price, but more than that, the level of consumption on this car is amazing.
Right. And just one last thing – obviously you're doing hybrid for your CAFE targets which are growing, you know, CAFE India is booming. EVs are also part of the mix, but what is your strategy on EV? Because you haven't announced anything on EVs yet. So clearly that seems to be... Is there something in the pipeline for that as well?
We didn't announce because EV now in India is more or less 5% of the market. We see that hybrid is going up. We see that still there are traditional engines which are very important – diesel, CNG, and so on. I think of course we have to come with EV, but we will announce that in due time.
