Renault Kiger Outsells Nissan Magnite in February, But How?

The Renault Kiger was one of the top ten best-selling compact SUVs in India in February, which also is its first month of being on sale in the market. The newest and cheapest entrant in the rapidly growing and highly competitive segment from the French automaker sold 3,226 units, coming in 9^th on the list and outselling the likes of the Mahindra XUV300 and the Ford EcoSport. However, the more surprising fact from February’s list of top-selling compact SUVs is that the Kiger has also outsold its sibling, the Nissan Magnite which sold 2,991 units.

When the Magnite was launched just a few months back in December, it became the most affordable compact SUV in India with its sub Rs 5 lakh introductory price tag. Also, recently, Nissan has stated that it has over 40,000 bookings currently and is currently trying its best to reduce its waiting period. This may be a reason for the low sales numbers. Meanwhile, Renault has just started deliveries of the Kiger and is off to a strong start by shifting 1,100 units on the first day. But you may question how Renault is in the February sales chart if delivery to customers has only started a couple of days back? This is because car sales numbers are calculated on how many units of a vehicle have been sold by the manufacturer to their dealers, not how many units have been sold to customers.

The Renault Kiger comes with an eye-catching design, getting an aggressive front bumper, winged grille, tri-beam split LED projector headlights, LED DRLs and a sculpted bonnet. Over to the side, it gets flared wheel arches that house diamond-cut dual-tone alloys, roof rails, a floating roofline, and a shark-fin antenna. The rear gets C-shaped taillights with a faux skid plate.

Coming to the interior, the Renault Kiger comes with features like an 8-inch touchscreen infotainment system with integrated Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, a 7-inch fully digital instrument cluster, automatic climate control, keyless entry, wireless phone charging, and steering mounted controls.

The Renault Kiger comes with the option of 1 petrol engine but in two different states of tune. The 1-litre 3-pot unit makes 72 PS and 96 Nm of peak power and torque figures in naturally-aspirated form and is mated to a 5-speed manual gearbox or a 5-speed AMT. In turbocharged form, the engine makes figures of 100PS and 160 Nm with the 5-speed manual and 100 PS/152 Nm when paired to the CVT auto.

Prices for the Renault Kiger start from Rs 5.45 lakh, going up to Rs 9.72 lakh for the range-topping trim.