Recently, several images of the upcoming sedan Scala from the stable of the French car maker, Renault has appeared on the World Wide Web. The sedan looks appealing with a butch front end and the hexagonal grille from Pulse hatchback. Leave aside the new cosmetic changes and the Renault Badge, the 2012 Renault Scala is the revamped Nissan Sunny, which means that all the class-leading features of the latter will be appearing in the new car as well. Apparently, Sunny has been the bread and butter model for its maker in India with massive sales volume to boast of.
Going by the fact that it is a re-engineered Sunny, Renault Scala will be coming with a capacious rear passenger seat, which is the USP of the former. Highlighting the comfort factor further, the car will also offer rear AC vents in the new model. Just like Sunny, the high-end variant of the Scala will be coming with safety features like twin air-bags and Anti-Lock Braking System as standard. The 1.5 litre HR15DE petrol motor, producing 100 bhp of maximum power, and the 1.5 litre K9K turbo diesel motor with 85 bhp powering the Nissan Sunny is expected to serve on Scala as well.
The French car maker will be launching the new car in the Indian automotive market during the festive season, along with 30 other models scheduled to be launched during the same period from several other car makers. With so many new launches in the pipeline for Diwali 2012, customers in India are in for a real treat. That being said, Renault is expected to keep with its tradition of pricing its car at a premium over its global alliance, Nissan's offerings. So, it can be safely assumed that the Renault Scala will be Rs. 20,000-60,000 pricier than the Nissan Sunny. This means that the new car may not drive in expected volumes and may serve as the brand builder on the domestic turf. It is also speculated that the new Scala may get an automatic variant in the future considering the fact that Nissan is in the process of testing the same for the Sunny to be launched in 2013.
Renault India's fifth launch in the country, the 2012 Renault Scala marks the completion of the announced product line-up by the car maker. Interestingly, with the new launch, the car maker would have launched 5 products within 18 months. This is quite a feat for the foreign car maker trying to build its presence in a new market. However, two models out of the five are the re-badged versions of Nissan models, sharing components with the Japanese car maker.
The badge engineering by the car maker basically means re-designing the outgoing models from Nissan and selling them under Renault brand. With no extra cost incurring on the interiors and features of the cars, Renault has been developing these new cars with no additional development costs. This coupled with the fact that Renault cars are being sold on a premium as compared to Nissan models ensures that the car maker has struck gold as the Renault-Nissan production facility is a shared one.
