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Renault Duster caught testing in Chennai, launch in June

French auto maker is working in full force since the deal with Mahindra was over. Recently, its upcoming SUV offering Renault Duster was caught by lensmen while testing in the in and outskirts of Chennai. The camouflaged mule suggest that the wait for SUV will soon be over and as expected the Renault Duster launch could happen in June as the French have proposed it to happen. The five seater Duster SUV is in anticipation from sometime following its priced which is expected to land between Rs 7 lakh to Rs 9 lakh which is far below the Tata Safari or Mahindra XUV 500 types.  

The Duster SUV will be the second SUV by Renault after Renault Koleos that was launched in late 2011 at a price tag of around Rs 23 lakh. Besides the Duster will be the fourth offering by the French car maker. The recent addition to the fleet was all diesel small car Renault Pulse which is close twin of Nissan Micra. The Duster on the other hand will be offered as an entry level SUV offering in India. However, the company believes that it would do everything possible to preserve the features of the international version but experts believe that the Indian version will witness a different model feature wise.  

Renault Duster is expected to do what Renault Fluence and recently Pulse small car has done to the French car maker. Both the sedan and the hatchback has been very successful on their turf. The Duster too is expected to do the same as India still awaits an international SUV at this price. For India, Renault Duster will be available in both petrol and diesel versions. A diesel Duster launch could precede the petrol variant. Where the Duster petrol will be having 1.6L engine underneath, the Duster diesel will have a 1.5L dCi engine. The diesel engine is said to be both economical and maintenance free.