Renault to launch EV in India by 2022

French automobile giant Renault will launch two new models by 2022, including an electric car in India, a top official of its Indian subsidiary said here on Tuesday.

He also said the next couple of models to be launched by Renault India will be sub-four metres models, taking its market share to 5 per cent while it will open bookings for its new car Triber from August 17 onwards.

Triber will be formally launched on August 28.

"We will enter the electric vehicle segment by 2022. We will also launch another car code named as HBC by then," Venkatram Mamillapalle, Country CEO and Managing Director, Renault India Operations, told reporters.

He said Renault had developed the Kwid model for India and China. While in India Kwid is powered by petrol, in China it is an electric car.

According to Mamillapalle, 75 per cent of the Indian car market is dominated by sub-four metres models and Renault India wants to be there.

He also said the French group sources automobile components worth about 190 million euros from India annually, apart from shipping cars made at the Renault-Nissan joint venture plant near here.

Mamillapalle said the company hopes to sell about 7,000 Tribers per month and expects the model to script a success story like one of its cars, Duster.

He said Triber is expected to be a volume driver for the company and together with the other new model, Renault India hopes to double its market share from the current 2.4 per cent in three years time.

According to him, Triber is specifically designed for the Indian market.

Mamillapalle said Triber will be attractively priced and will create a new segment in the market.

He said Triber will also be exported to right hand drive markets such as South Africa, Indonesia and Australia.

Last year, Renault India sold about 86,000 cars in the domestic market besides shipping out about 7,000 cars.

On the expansion of its distribution network, Mamillapalle said the company currently has 120 dealers and 350 outlets and plans to double the number of outlets in the next three years.

He said the company will stop production of BS IV emission norm compliant cars by January 2020 and start the production of BS VI compliant cars there after.

( With inputs from IANS )