Renault has rebadged the Nissan Sunny as the Scala. The French automaker will do the same thing they did to the Micra by rebadging it as the Pulse for the Indian market. There will be no mechanical changes to the Sunny at all and the Renault Scala will have slight cosmetic changes to distinguish it from its cousin. This exercise is not new at all and Volkswagen does is successfully with the Vento and Skoda Rapid. Renault however plan to price the Scala at a slight premium over the Sunny. The Scala is expected to go on sale in the Indian market by October 2012 and will compete Renault’s 5 model line-up.
The Renault Scala will feature slight changes to the bumper, grille and wheels wile the rest of the car will remain largely the same as the Sunny. On the inside, the only prominent change would be the Renault badge on the steering wheel. Mechanically both the Sunny and Scala will use the same powertrains, with Renault offering the 1.5-litre DCi diesel engine at launch and following up with the petrol version sometime later. The 1.5-litre diesel produces 85 BHP of power and 200 Nm of torque, while the 1.5-litre petrol produces 97 BHP of power and 134 Nm of torque.
Why Renault is opting for badge engineering is unknown at this moment, while the most obvious reasons are the cost advantages associated with using the same vehicle and just changing the badges. The Renault Scala will be manufactured at the Renault-Nissan facility in Orgadam, near Chennai. Nissan is currently testing an automatic gearbox on the petrol Sunny and this too could be offered by Renault on the Scale in 2013. The launch of the Scala could boost Renault’s sales drastically just like the Sunny has done for Nissan.
via Autocar India
