Renault posts strong growth in Saudi Arabia, eyes greater market share

French automobile giant Renault recorded a stellar performance in Saudi Arabia last year and is bullish for 2019 driven by a growing market share and sales volume in the Kingdom, the regional head of the carmaker has told Argaam in an exclusive.

“Amidst an overall declining sales progression among all car manufacturers between 2017 and 2018 in KSA (-25 percent overall), Renault managed to achieve an increase of 83 percent sales,” said Marwan Haidamous, Managing Director, Renault Middle East.

“We look forward to continuing this trend and increase our market share by end of 2019,” he added.

The automaker’s new product range such as Koleos, Megane and Duster has received very exciting reviews from Saudi customers, while there is a growing trend from sedan consumers who are more and more shifting towards SUV cars, Haidamous stated. 

Product acceptability and brand awareness are the two key pillars of growth in Renault’s market share in Saudi Arabia, he said. 

Pan-regional push

Across the wider Middle East region, Renault Middle East (part of Groupe Renault) has been performing “extremely well”, Haidamous added.

In the first quarter of this year, Renault achieved 3.54 percent market share across the region, up 0.53 percent compared to the same period last year.

Renault, he said, is committed to delivering innovations that enrich the driving experience and the lives of our customers.

“The introduction of the all-new Duster made a hit and achieved a 100 percent increase in sales volumes versus the previous model phase over the same period last year, which makes it the main contributor to this growth within the Middle East region,” he maintained.

For Saudi Arabian market, the Duster model alone is expected to clock over 50 percent growth in 2019 year-on-year (YoY), he said.

“In a country where the C and D sub-segments represent 30 percent of the market, Renault Koleos is certainly the most preferred brand among Saudi consumers,” he stated adding that Renault continues to be the number one European brand in the Kingdom.

Despite the solid performance in Saudi Arabia, however, the star market for Renault in Middle East is Egypt, according to Haidamous. 

“The yearly total market is about 200,000 units of cars and our target is to have minimum 10 percent market share,” Haidamous told Argaam.

New growth engine

Delving into the auto brand’s future strategies especially related to sustainable mobility, Haidamous said Renault has been working on four major areas, namely electric mobility, connected mobility, autonomous mobility and developing new mobility services.

“With autonomous, electric and connected cars, we are entering a new exciting era in automotive design,” Haidamous said, adding that Renault is bringing and adapting all its innovations and technologies in the Middle East ‘to answer the market demand and contribute to the Smart City roadmap’.

Renault was one of the first auto brands to introduce electric vehicles in the Middle East region. Back in in 2014, it had launched its Twizy quadricyle.

Going forward, he said the auto company plans to extend its electric vehicle lineup from 4 to 8 models by 2022.

Write to Sunil Kumar Singh at sunil.kumar@argaamplus.com