Renault Scala all set for launch

Renault will be launching its fifth vehicle in India next month, the Renault Scala, which is a badge-engineered Nissan Sunny. The design changes that have been carried out by Renault’s design studio in Mumbai have actually made the Scala look slightly better than the Nissan Sunny.

CarToq will soon get a preview of the Scala, but in the meantime Autocar India managed to get some spy photos of the new Renault Scala. Going by the pictures, the car is slightly younger-looking than the Sunny.

Renault has kept the Pulse design philosophy in mind, while designing the Scala’s front-end. The Renault Pulse is essentially a badge-engineered Nissan Micra. The Renault Scala gets a hexagonal grille, with slightly different headlamps from the Sunny. The bumper is also slightly different with a sportier looking lower portion and housing for the fog lamps. The design is similar to the work Renault carried out to the front-end of the Pulse. The Renault Logo is on the body j front of the bonnet instead of on the grille.

In profile, the car looks identical to the Sunny except for the alloy wheels that have been taken from the Renault Pulse. Otherwise, there is nothing visibly different from the side. At the rear, a bold chrome strip that runs across the width of the boot has been added, and this chrome strip integrates neatly with the C-shaped clear-lenses on the tail-lamps. The tail-lamps have the same dimensions as the Sunny’s tail-lamps, but have a different lens pattern – which look a little like they have been inspired by a Skoda design.

On the interiors, there are no differences between the Scala and the Sunny except for the logo on the steering wheel. The rest of the interiors remain the same. The engine choices that the Scala will come with, are also likely to be identical to the Sunny. It will have a 1.5 litre diesel engine that puts out 84 bhp of power and a 1.5 litre petrol engine that puts out 98 bhp of power. Equipment levels are also expected to be identical – so you can expect two airbags, push-button start, power-fold mirrors and steering audio controls on the top-end variant of the Renault Scala.

Given that the Renault Scala and the Nissan Sunny are near identical, it will be interesting to see how Renault prices the Scala in relation to Sunny. Going by how the Pulse and the Micra are priced, we think the Scala will be about priced only about Rs. 15,000 or so more than the Sunny. By launching the Scala, Renault will now get at least one model in each of the lucrative Indian automotive segments – the premium hatchback and mid-size sedan space, and budget SUV space with the Duster. The Renault Duster has chalked up over 12,000 bookings, with nearly 1,200 Dusters being delivered in a span of 10 days last month. The Nissan Sunny sells about 2,500 cars a month, so one can expect the Scala to probably reach the same level in sales as well.

(Photos courtesy: Autocar India)