Renault, the French auto giant, has confirmed that the company will launch its five new cars in the country by this year end. The car maker has already introduced four of them and at the launch ceremony of Duster, it announced to break cover of a new sedan before the festive season. Even though the auto maker did not disclose any information about the new car, the name of new vehicle has been confirmed, Renault Scala.
The alliance of Renault-Nissan does not just share similar technology and powertrains but a lot more, which is pretty obvious taking a look at their portfolio. Nissan Micra and Renault Pulse are almost identical. At the same time, a single diesel unit with different power output has been used in the Micra, Pulse, Sunny, Duster and the Fluence. Following the trend, the recently launched Renault Koleos has been exclusively designed on Nissan X-Trail, which is yet-to-be launched in the Indian auto market. In wake of these facts, it is quite apparent that the new C-segment sedan, Renault Scala will be the re-engineered version of Nissan Sunny.
According to the reports, Scala will be built on the same V-Platform, which is shared by the Micra, Pulse and Sunny. During the initial phase, Renault may only launch the petrol version of its new sedan. However, it is also possible that the car maker brings its diesel variant later, like it did in the case of Pulse hatchback. The powertrain serving in Scala will be a K9K dCi diesel unit, having brilliant outputs. The unit is capable of producing 85 bhp of power with a maximum torque of 200 Nm, which is same to that of Nissan Sunny. Besides outputs, it will share the same spare parts incorporated in Sunny.
Usually, Renault prices its models quite higher than the Nissan models and, thus, it is believed that the new car will be priced at a premium over Sunny. To be precise, the car deserves to categorise in C+ segment, owing to its large space and chances of favourable upgrade. Renault shares an old relationship with Formula 1, which was evident by the fact that it launched its Pulse hatchback at the inaugural ceremony of Indian F1 GP in 2011. The trend is expected to be followed with Scala sedan as well, which may be launched during F1 weekend between October 26-28, 2012.
