A Duster Pick-Up could be good for India
The Dacia brand isn’t known really well in India (most would only know the name from James May’s love of the Dacia Sandero), but one of their most popular cars, the Duster, is sold in the country under the Renault brand name. The compact SUV drives volumes in India for the French manufacturer with its compact, rugged styling and fuel efficient but torquey engine. In Romania (Dacia’s home ground), a Duster Pick-Up truck has been made to cater to Romanian oil and gas company, the OMV Petrom Group.
The Duster Pick-Up is (as its name implies) based on the Duster 4x4 though it replaces the rear seats and boot with a smallish truck bed, seating two up front. On the outside, the pick up gets an exterior roll cage that runs over the body and a grate over the rear window for extra protection. The Duster Pick-Up is powered by the same 108bhp and 248Nm 1.5 dCi diesel motor that we get on the Duster 4x4, though it has been tuned to better handle the specific needs of the oil and gas industry.
The 1.7-metre bed at the rear (Isuzu’s D-Max gets a 1.9m bed) can carry a decent sized payload of 450kg.
Dacia will supply over 500 Pick-Ups for OMV Petrom, which will be used to monitor and maintain its 9,000 wells in the country. Romturingia, a Romanian truck supplier, has been contracted to actually make the conversion from SUV to pick-up. The first ten of them are being delivered now, with the rest being delivered throughout 2015.
In India, pick-up trucks do not enjoy the popularity they do in American markets but Isuzu’s recent launch of the D-Max shows that there is a niche market for them. The segment is dominated by players like Mahindra and Tata, with only a couple of models each in their bag. However, at the launch of their pick-up, Isuzu claimed that in a decade’s time, India will grow to be the world’s largest 1-ton pick-up truck market. This is where a compact pick up could shine.
USPs for the Duster Pick-Up include the fact that it is comparatively smaller, making urban usage less of a hassle, and unlike others in the segment, the Duster Pick-Up also gets an all-wheel drive set-up, so you’ll be able to take it off the beaten path quite easily. Make a statement (enough eyes will follow around a Duster Pick-Up), carry around 500kg worth of luggage, park relatively easily, or go rock climbing, the Duster Pick-up could accommodate all this.
Renault, are you listening?
