2 weeks Ago
French automaker Renault, on Tuesday, inaugurated a new design centre in India, its largest facility outside Europe. Located within the Renault Nissan Technology & Business Centre in Chennai, the studio was established with an investment of €1.5 million.
It currently accommodates 32 designers, with plans to increase headcount to 40 in the near future. Laurens van den Acker, Chief Design Officer at Renault, said, “We have been using our design studio to develop vehicles for the European market and are pleased with the design and development capabilities in India.” Notably, the centre will not only design and support the engineering of five Renault models slated for launch in India over the next five years, but it will also do so at an unprecedented pace.
“Renault’s Indian market is set to grow at a significantly faster rate than the global average. At present, the Total Industry Volume (TIV) in India stands at 4.3 million, and we expect this to increase to 10 million in the near future,” said Venkatram Mamillapalle, Country Managing Director and CEO of Renault India, in a conversation with CNBC-TV18.
“To reach our short-term goals of at least 6 million TIV by 2030 and 8 million by 2032, we require a full-fledged OEM structure, optimal plant utilisation, and a rapid pace of execution,” he added. “Designing these vehicles in India will enable us to compress the design-manufacturing-localisation cycle to just around 100 weeks.” Renault has already announced a pipeline of five new vehicle launches over the next two years for the Indian market, including its B-plus and C-segment SUVs.
“Until now, we have operated primarily in the sub-4-metre SUV category. We will now expand into the 4.3-metre and 4.
6-metre segments,” Venkatram noted. “In terms of pricing, we’ve been in the sub-₹10 lakh segment; we now intend to enter a category priced at nearly double that.” In essence, Renault’s new design centre could play a pivotal role in broadening its footprint in India, described by the company's India chief as “wider, higher, and with a full-range SUV offering.
” He added, “All our SUV launches will be designed with Indian customers in mind—their needs, preferences, and priorities.” Designing upcoming Renault vehicles in India will also boost efficiency, Venkatram explained. Geographically and time zone-wise, India’s position allows design operations to continue while other parts of the world are offline.
Moreover, India’s strong talent pool in engineering and design is critical for scaling up the company’s design-engineer-build cycles. A few weeks ago, Renault announced plans to acquire Nissan’s 51% stake in their Indian joint venture. Venkatram confirmed that the transition would be completed within the next two months.
“The acquisition will enable us to bring our Chennai plant to full operational capacity,” he said, referring to their production goals. “The launch of these five products is expected to boost production by 50%, and I am confident of achieving maximum plant utilisation in Chennai by 2030.” While Renault is also developing an electric vehicle for the Indian market, Venkatram noted that widespread EV adoption in India remains a few years away.
“EVs currently account for less than 2% of the Indian market. We expect this to rise to 10–12% over the next five to seven years,” he said. “Range anxiety and battery autonomy remain key challenges in India’s EV ecosystem.
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