Renault Duster Automatic, not on the Cards for India

From the day Renault launched the automatic version of its compact SUV, the Duster in Brazil, everybody in the industry started guessing about its Indian launch including CarDekho, but we need to look at it more closely. Renault doesn't have a diesel automatic vehicle anywhere worldwide, in fact the Brazilian Automatic Duster too houses the 2.0-litre flexi-fuel petrol engine. And India is the market today that demands more and more diesel vehicles, so even if they bring in the AT petrol in India, they would only be able to lure those limited buyers for whom fuel economy is indeed not a concern.

So launching the Duster petrol in AT would only bring down the fuel economy and increase its price. And if they plan a diesel AT, then it might take some more years, as the company doesn't have a ready-to-use mechanism. So we guess that the diesel AT would not at least come in the existing Duster, so this must happen with the next generation of the vehicle. So all those waiting for automatic duster, will have to wait for a few years.But if the automatic SUV is all what you want, then you have Mahindra Scorpio in AT at the moment and if you can wait for some months, there will be Tata Safari Storme Automatic by the next year.