Renault and Nissan have a global alliance and in India both companies keep re-badging each other’s vehicles. While Renault has re-badged the Micra as the Pulse and Sunny as the Scala, Nissan will do it’s first re-badge exercise on a Renault product with the Terrano. The Nissan Terrano, as you can see in the above sketch, is a re-badged Renault Duster.
So what is the advantage of re-badging a product while keeping everything else the same? Well for starters, Renault and Nissan don’t have to bring in new products and that saves them quite a bit of investment. Even though the Renault Duster and Nissan Terrano are the same under the skin, there will be at least Rs. 60,000/- price difference between both ($1100). For the extra price you get a vehicle that looks slightly better with more features (likely to be leather seats).
This strategy could lead to the dreaded cannibalization, but Renault-Nissan are happy as long as overall sales increase.
Faisal Ali Khan is the editor of MotorBeam.com, a website covering the automobile industry of India.
Doesn’t Nissan have 5 SUVCUVs already in their stable? Why did they need to bring another in with Renault?
The Terraro most probably isn’t coming to the States, chances are this is staying in Europe and India as the article is posted in the India section.
Can’t say whether or not it’s going to the US but if it does it’d probably slot in as the Versa of U-SUVs. Having a Nissan badge means they’re at least toying with the idea. I think it could well find a nice niche there. Canada and Mexico would surely buy many.
Having the Juke,Rogue, Murano (and cabriolet), and Xterra, as well as the Pathfinder (now car based), the Armada, and the Infiniti EX and FX and QX – I don’t see Nissan USA needing ANY more SUV products.
Price CoreyDL. AWD. Small package. Don’t consumers all want CUV-SUVs nowadays? Buy one for the same price as a Versa. Do you really think there wouldn’t be plenty of takers?
The Rogue is already the same price as the Versa, slightly above with options.
The Juke and Rogue are both small CUV’s already!
Didn’t know that. I figured the Rogue was more expensive. Does it have 4WD?
I’ll be factual and look it up per Nissan USA:
Versa – $12K
Juke – $19K
Rogue – $20K
Murano – $28K
Murano CC – $42K (LOLZ)
Xterra – $23K
Pathfinder – $28K
Armada – $37K (LOLZ)
An AWD Juke S starts at $21K. AWD Rogue S starts at $21,610. I don’t see much room to slice Nissan’s SUV share here any thinner.
Oh I see. From 12k to 20k there’s a pretty good gap. So maybe AWD for 16k, after rebates more like 14k. Seems doable, that is much like the global Ranger vs the F trucks, it didn’t reduce margins too much. Guess if Ford does in fact launch EcoSport it’s a no brainer. Let’s see who blinks first!
When I first saw the Duster in person I was reminded of a Nissan SUV.
specially the back. There’s more than a hint of XTerra or Pathfinder there.
Also, we need to decide if it’s the Terraro or Terrano. The article says both.
Terrano of course. Sounds Spanish and Western-outdoorsy. Yet another indication?