With better-than-expected sales figures, the Renault company's cheap Logan sedan, built in developing countries for developing markets, is proving a hit in developed nations as well.
The 100,000th Logan rolled off the assembly line at Pitesti, Romania, the first production site, this month, and Renault said it was exceeding its most optimistic sales targets both in Romania and abroad. World sales in the first six months of this year exceeded 79,000, the company said.
Customers have to wait at least three months for delivery, and the company said it was struggling to increase production in Romania to meet the unexpected demand -- the question was when and how, according to the company's commercial director, Patrick Blain.
"It's really on the right path," Blain said. "It has started off better than we expected."
By the end of this year, Renault plans to expand production to new sites in Russia, Morocco and Colombia and put the car on sale in about 30 countries, including eight in Western Europe. Further ahead were plans to open plants in Iran next year, India in 2007 and China eventually.
Renault designed the car as a world model with global sales of one million by 2010, but according to Blain that figure may have to be revised upwards if the initial success of the car continues.
The Logan is a mid-sized, family sedan designed to sell in emerging markets for about 5,000 euros (US$6,000). Even with anti-block brakes and other safety equipment required by EU legislation, the car retails in France for about half the price of a similarly sized and equipped automobile built in France.
Since the Logan went on sale in France one month ago -- priced at 7,500 euros for the basic model to 8,500 euros for the high-end version with power steering, onboard computer and air conditioning -- nearly 700 have been delivered and the company has booked 5,000 orders.
Even with zero advertising and minimal promotion, Blain said Renault had been surprised by the success of the car in the French market. One union member said that the company was not promoting the car more aggressively because it feared that it would eat into the sales of other Renault products.
So far the impact on sales other cars has not been noticeable since the Renault Group sold 1.34 million vehicles in the first quarter this year, and said earlier this month that it boosted worldwide sales by 3.6 percent even if markets in Western Europe remained stagnant.
Renault says that the Logan will not compete with the company's higher end autos, but with other low-cost cars being made in Asia, Eastern Europe and developing countries, such as the made-in-Brazil Volkswagen Fox.
Other manufacturers are expanding operations in eastern Europe to take advantage of the low labor costs there and a relatively affluent market in western Europe. They include France's domestic rival, PSA Peugeot Citroen, and the Kia division of Hyundai of South Korea, both of which have established factories in Slovakia.
The Logan appears to appeal to young people and pensioners who might otherwise have bought a second-hand automobile, to families in need of a second car and to rural dwellers more than city inhabitants. Some buyers say they were attracted by the car's relative simplicity and lack of electronic gadgetry.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS