Satisfaction for Renault

LAGUNA may have completed Renault Australia's passenger car range for 2002, but 2003 will see the arrival of an even more luxurious flagship for the French marque in the Vel Satis, as well as the first of up to eight variants of the all-new Megane small car.

Renault Australia marketing director Richard Nyhout confirmed the super-luxury Vel Satis hatch, which will compete with BMW's 5 Series in the luxury vehicle segment, is still on target for an early 2003 launch.

But Mr Nyhout also confirmed for the first time that Renault Australia has all eight variants of the new Megane on its shopping list - including three-door, four-door, five-door, wagon, convertible, coupe and five and seven-seater monospace versions.

"Late next year the replacement for the Megane will also arrive in Australia," Mr Nyhout said at last week's Laguna launch.

"If we can, we would like to have them all but perhaps not with all the engines available because there are certain engines that will not be suitable for Australia, given this market likes higher capacity vehicles." Mr Nyhout said the first new Megane model would surface toward the end of 2003 with other variants to follow during 2004, but stressed the wagon and four-wheel drive monospace version to replace the Scenic RX4 were not yet confirmed for production.

"An RX4 variant of Megane is in the pipeline but no firm decision has been made - or even whether there will be a four-wheel drive Scenic. The first Megane will come late next year and the rest of the range will have arrived by the end of 2004," he said.

Mr Nyhout said it was too early to put a price on the top-of-the-range Vel Satis, given currency fluctuations and competitors' pricing strategies. But it recently went on sale in France with a starting price of about $50,000 - well short of Australia's entry-level 5 Series, the $85,000 525i Executive.

But Mr Nyhout confirmed Australia would not receive as many Vel Satis engine variants as Europe does and that the V6-only local version was likely to compete in the $75,000-$95,000 price range currently occupied by its luxury European rival.

"Vel Satis won't need to undercut rivals like Laguna but at the same time won't be a 1000 per-year car," he said.

"It will be an additional product to our range, which will cover all segments of the market. Renault wants to be a global player, not a niche vehicle seller." Mr Nyhout's comments were echoed by Renault Australia director Richard Wilson: "Vel Satis is not a car we'll invest a lot of money in because it won't be big volumes. It has very adventurous styling and we've gone as far as saying we're interested in the car," he said.

Mr Wilson also confirmed a 2.0-litre version of the Laguna would go on sale in the third quarter of this year at under $40,000. But of the other Renault releases expected this year - a 2.0-litre version of the Megane convertible and the hot V6 Clio - Mr Nyhout said neither model was a definite.

"The 2.0-litre Megane cabrio is not confirmed in the sense that the 2.0-litre engine only has a manual gearbox and given the 80 per cent automatic take-up here the market is too small to bring only manuals in. We haven't abandoned the idea yet and we're hopeful they will confirm automatic right-hand drive production soon.

"We brought in the Clio Sport as a limited edition and then the new Clio arrived. It wouldn't have made sense to bring in the old Clio V6, and Renault is working on a new Clio V6 version right now. Right-hand drive Clio V6 production starts either in July or September in France and then we'll consider bringing it here as a low-volume vehicle." Mr Nyhout said a late-2003 arrival estimate for the facelifted Clio V6 would be "quite optimistic", and that although the mid-engined hatch is likely to be imported under the (low-volume manufacturer) Specialist and Enthusiast Vehicle Scheme, ADR compliance would still be a stumbling block.

More light was also shed on Renault Australia's commercial vehicle plans with Mr Nyhout confirming the Kangoo, Traffic and Master tradie's tools will go on sale locally in 2003.

He said the small, car-based Kangoo commercial was likely to be launched first as it would constitute the largest volumes.

Mr Nyhout also confirmed the full-size Espace people-mover that appeared in Geneva as a concept was also under consideration for Australia, in both four-cylinder and V6 guise.

If sold here, it could go on sale as early at the end of 2003, depending on right-hand drive production.

The seven-seater Espace could compete with the likes of Voyager, Peugeot's 807 and Citroen's C8. An all-new Clio range is also expected Down Under in 2004.

Renault sales on target

RENAULT Australia boss Leon Daphne says the company is on target to achieve annual vehicle sales of 20,000 units by 2010 and that, despite its multi-million dollar marketing spend, Renault Australia will soon be profitable.

"We're well paced to achieve our 2002 target of 5000 units," said Mr Daphne at last week's launch of Laguna.

"January and February were well above targets and March is likely to do the same - and all without the Laguna volumes we expected." Mr Daphne's comments followed boom sales in January and February, when Renault sold 842 vehicles, or 421 per month. That's four cars more than the 417 per month Renault needs to average this year to achieve its 2002 sales target of 5000 units or 0.65 per cent of the market.

Mr Daphne admitted Renault-Nissan Australia's total industry forecast of 770,000 vehicles in 2002 was less optimistic than other car-makers' predictions, but he remained cautious in the face of rising interest rates.

"While we're confident of achieving our goals, I think we need to be careful about what impact interest rate rises may have on consumer confidence. We're possibly a little bit low but we're not going to change our forecast at the moment," he said.

Asked why Renault Nissan Australia's 2002 forecast fell so far short of others, in particular Ford's at 790,000, Mr Daphne said: "I don't think any of us are experts in forecasting the market exactly and we do change from time to time. For example, Ford had a different view three or four months ago and Holden in the latter part of last year were talking about 100,000 vehicles being taken out of the market.

"They're supposedly two of the top companies in the country and so you'd have to think sensible people are involved with it. So while there is a big variation in it, we're a little more cautious than most probably because if we put the market at 800,000 the parent company will expect more sales," Mr Daphne joked.

Mr Daphne, who at 61 is expected to be replaced as CEO by Nissan HQ soon, said Renault Australia would have spent $20 million in 2001 to launch the brand from May, but the amount would be reduced to $15 million this year.

"We lost a manageable amount in 2001. Laguna will recover that and make us a modest profit in the next few years. But it's a very satisfying result given the delays with some our products and as the first year as a wholly owned subsidiary of Nissan Australia," he said.

Renault Australia has 22 dealers nationwide and expects to add another two in the short term. Sales of both Laguna and Clio were delayed, however Scenic and the Megane convertible have both been successful models for Renault in Australia, and after a slow start the Scenic RX4 is also now selling the 100 per month expected of it.

Internationally, Renault hopes to increase the number of models in its range from 20 to 25 by 2004, as well as reduce the average age of models from 4.5 to three years by 2005.

The French giant also recently signed a joint-venture agreement with Ford and the PSA group to form a telematics company to first service Europe then the rest of the world.