The Indian Duster is part of a concerted plan to grow the Renault Group business: last year it sold 616,800 vehicles outside of Europe, compared with 1.6 million within it. “Our international strategy is an extension of what we are doing in Europe,” explained Renault brand CEO Fabrice Cambolive. “[It gives us a] capacity to be present outside of Europe but feed [back] with components and competitiveness.”
The renewed international push kicked off in 2023, when Renault committed to spending €3-billion to launch eight new models outside of Europe by 2027. Many of them are large in size to deliver a “significant revenue increase per car,” explained Cambolive: a good example is Renault’s Filante SUV, being introduced in Korea this year and tasked with taking premium market share.
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Also coming soon is a pick-up for South America. North Africa and Turkey are other big markets in Renault’s international crosshairs – but India is a huge one. “India will be one of the world’s biggest growth [opportunities] in 2026,” said Cambolive.
At 4.3 million units a year, the new car market is more than twice the size of the UK’s. But just like over here, SUVs account for more than half of registrations. With India’s population on course to overtake China’s, Renault predicts the market could reach six million by 2030.
Renault has a design team in its Chennai hub, which also includes the factory that will assemble the Duster. “Feet on the ground help us understand local markets and [employ] designers from there,” explained group design boss Laurens van den Acker. Having team members in India and China enables Renault to work around the clock on pressing projects, taking advantage of different timezones.
The Duster is a great example of global car makers acting locally. Renault chief Cambolive reckons creating a global car to ship to all regions is an impossible task these days, with differing regulation and volatile foreign exchange rates. “But we can catch global trends [like SUVs], and the Duster is a great example of Renault’s capacity to be a global player.”
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