By S.M. Boothem

After tasting the success of its earlier model, the Triber, French carmaker, Renault India has introduced its new model, the Kiger, to further strengthen its presence in the Indian market. Compact Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs) are fast catching up with Indian customer expectations, as a result of their increased performance, comfort, space, other features, as well as their reasonable pricing. Recent trends also show that compact SUVs are the preferred choice of car buyers.

With the arrival of the Renault Kiger, there is now intense competition in the compact SUV segment. The Kiger will compete with the Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza, the Kia Sonet, the Hyundai Venue, the Tata Nexon, and the Nissan Magnite. The new Kiger SUV is designed and developed in the Chennai plant for Indian and global markets.

When the Renault Duster first hit Indian roads in 2012, it was a huge success for the company. The company also introduced its new version, with many improvements, in 2015. The same year, the Kwid, a hatchback, was launched in India at a starting price of Rs2.57 lakh, and was well received by customers due to its price and features. Taking this success forward, Renault India introduced its sub-compact seven-seater, the Triber, in 2019. 

“We recently had a global preview of the Kiger in India, the feedback and response from our customers, dealer partners, and suppliers have been mind-blowing. Kiger is the third global car to debut from India. We are still a young brand in India,” says Venkatram Mamillapalle, Country CEO & MD, Renault India Operations.

A modern SUV 

With a starting price of Rs5.45 lakh, the Renault Kiger has been designed by French and Indian teams. The new SUV will be available first to Indian customers. Bookings have started at the dealership network of more than 500 sales outlets across the country. “Renault Kiger is a modern SUV that is a perfect fit for the Indian market. It brings to the fore our proven expertise of innovation, creativity, customer understanding and above all, our focus on making cars that offer an unmatched value proposition. Renault Kiger has a distinctive SUV look and its long wheelbase enables great space and volume on board. It is loaded with several smart attributes and will be powered by a sporty, world-class engine.

Moreover, it will demonstrate the competence of India’s design, engineering and manufacturing capabilities and highlights Renault’s strong commitment to the ‘Make in India’ mission. With a vision of fulfilling the growing SUV aspirations of a wide set of customers, we have ensured that the Kiger is attractively priced, and we look forward to strengthening our SUV legacy with this new game-changer,” explains Mamillapalle.

The Kiger offers two petrol engines across four variants – RXE, RXL, RXT, and RXZ. Each version is built keeping in mind the customer requirements in the segment. The two front seats and the two rear side seats of the Kiger are fitted with three-point seatbelts while the rear middle passenger seat features a two-point seatbelt. On the safety front, it comes with two front airbags for the driver and front-seat passenger along with two side airbags. Both front seats get a seat belt reminder alert for enhanced safety.