MRPL JV Ends. Mahindra to Buy Renault's 49%

Mahindra & Mahindra and Renault on Friday said they have restructured their joint venture for making the sedan Logan in India, following which the Indian firm will buy out its French partner for an undisclosed sum.

M&M will buy out Renault’s 49 per cent stake in Mahindra Renault Pvt Ltd, thus becoming a 100 per cent subsidiary, the two companies said in a joint statement.

Full Story on -
http://clublogan.com/mahindra-renault-jv-ends-mahindra-to-buy-renaults-49-in-mahindra-renault-pvt-ltd/

Anand Mahindra on Twitter wrote-
"Regret it took a while to communicate a resolution to the Renault JV,but happy now that we can signal our commitment to all Logan customers"

Thanks a lot to both mahindra and renault for the amicable settlement and save the present coustmers of logan car .This will help to increase the volume sales of the car in india.So many indians are postponed to purchase the car due to JV issues.Anyway thanks a lot to all who favour this settlement in this clublogan community.This community helps a lot to settle this matter very practically

Thing that is not coming out from this is how seriously are Renault comitted to Indian market.

Not sure whether Mahindra will actually be able to handle Logan. Personally I bought this car because it was a Renault and not because Mahindra was involved in it.

Happy that mine will carry the Renault badge just like all of you. New ones probably will have the mahindra badge. Same as happened in Kinetic Honda JV years ago where earlier ones were from Honda and later ones from Kinetic Honda.

Strategically Indian market is more responsive to Mahindra than to Renault.

Finally if this helps increase sales and visibility then it is the best way out.

I had similar doubt becuase of the only reason - that Renault will never setup infra in India just for a failed make of Logan. Infact for them its a win win situation as M&M will continue to purchase engine, gearbox etc from Renault for Logan.

If you check Logan sales worldwide - Renault no where selling this make under his name but sold rights to manage and sales to some JV kinda arrangement. Whether its DACIA (in EU) or NISSAN (in Mexico) or M&M i(in India). So there was no point stting up infra for Logan in India by Renault.

Now thats a thing of past and only time can tell us the outcome of this ownership change. Im sure Logan has enough sold no of cars to generate profit out of service & maintenance.

The good thing is that Mahindra can now have the right to modify/tweak some of the external features

I'm quite surprised Mahindra pitched in and took over everything. Not bad at all.

i am happy to have bought the original one with the renault Badge.
We'll have to live with the Mahindra service centers... however it promises continuity for the model ... that should be a good thing.

One more thing ... am not a big fan of M&M design traditions.... so I dread what they might do to the Logan.
Scorpio is their only showcase, but the cab's cramped for a vehicle of this size and weight. there are other design blunders with the vehicle. It's of course the Rural and semi rural Land owner's dream vehicle here.

Latest news just in:

Flash – M&M gains exclusive rights to manufacturing Logan in India!

Mahindra will sell the Logan in India without the Renault or Logan badge, the company revealed moments ago at a press conference. The company which once said “the era of sedans is over” with the introduction of the MPV Xylo, will get into manufacturing a tweaked Logan and sell it as a Mahindra product.

Mahindra will continue to manufacture the Logan, and in the near future, a sub 4-metre version, and Renault will receive royalty for each car sold in the process (royalty per-car arrangement). This is a small fee that will be a percentage of the value of each car sold to the customer.

Mahindra is also working on the platform to bring out a sub four-meter SUV in 2012. This SUV could sport a 1.5-liter three-cylinder CRDi engine.

The Renault association will be used on the Logan till the end of this year hinting no major changes to the product will happen till December 2010. Mahindra will sell the Logan with a different name 18 months from now, and when that transition happens, the product will go through a sea of changes, possible with new features, interiors and engines. The car will be serviced across India by the existing dealers of Mahindra.

Mahindra is allowed to build the Logan for the next five years in India. It has ruled out the introduction of new variants from the Logan platform immediately. Renault will purchase the Logan from Mahindra and sell it in South Africa.

More to follow. Stay tuned.


Read more: Here

I am not sure this is a good news or bad news(mahindra acquiring the stake of renault) for the people who wants
to sell the car. Does it make any positive trend to the resale value?
Mahindra
first choice itself will kill the brand value of their own product.
They are the one who quote lowest resale value for their own products.

No more Renault cars in India. Plus Logan ends this year.

All i can guage is Renault failed to stand as a competitor.

This also means that we won't see the refreshed Logan or any new models based on the Logan platform anytime soon in India.

rdr yea...
No chance of the New Logan comin in i guess..

Forget the New Logan coming in. Its now all upto M&M

I am sure as per my experience and feeler its the end of LOGAN as a brand in India, because in any case mahindra is more keen in using Renaults engine etc for their sub 4 mtr version launch which will be obiously a Mahindra design and a non Logan named product.

We can only hope that our Logan (old ones) parts available in future and we keep getting service from Mahindra.

For all blind Logan supporters and Logan lovers (including me ) its a learning for us :-

How so good a car or product in technical terms or successful in other countries but always avoid buying a newly launched in India and wait for atleast 1 year to prove its success (in India specially).

We have no choice but to keep using it untill it becomes scrap.

Its Mahindra only who made a worldwide successful model of Logan like a canister for us with its poor marketing and management decisions. Im sure Renault was badly frustrated by their way of working took this wrong decision of leaving us in a hell like situation.

I am very upset about this whole development. I just dont want to see the Logan become a Peugeot 309 or a Ford Escort. The escort was another one out of the Mahindra stables and the Peugeot was a JV with premier Automobiles. People loved these cars but today they suffer a very bad image

I just hope Anand mahindra is listening to all our cries and is seriously intending to do something about it....

Fresh in just today.

Mahindra logan price cut

After taking over logan from Renault, Mahindra today announced drastic price cut on logan. The price of the logan is cut by 24,000 to 80,000 rupees depending on the variants. The price of the logan variant comes down Rs 6.4 lakh to Rs 5.5 lakh. The new Logan prices effective from April 26' 2010

The Honeymoon between M&M and Renault is over, but flirtation goes on

The Indian truck company Mahindra&Mahindra has departed its journey with Renault paving way for whole amalgamation. The departing deal will make M&M to buy the share of 49% owned by Renault. The deal will in no way be a constraint for M&M to avail the platform of Logan from Renault. The President of M&M for automotive and equipment sector said the negotiations are under process to secure the rights from Renault for continuing with Logan platform on royalty basis.(Renault-M&M pact over Logan cemented)

This concept may be continued for any other car springing off from the Logan [images] platform- Sandero (hatchback) Logan MCV (Multi-Convivial Vehicle) and Duster (SUV). However, Renault is not in a hurry to let its right go for M&M and the options are there for more partners for passenger cars, said the Chief Operating Officer for Renault. The new set up will require M&M to be the sole venture to pay manufacturing contract fee to MRPL vice versa.
Post- deal, M&M will bring out the refined Logan in a time span of two years, with increased localization from the current 60%. M&M will definitely modify the Logan to suit the norm fixed by the government for availing excise duty relaxation. Cars with the length of 4 metres in the 1.2 lit petrol version are eligible for this duty relaxation. Further refinement will include engineering operations, R&D with the technical know-how from Renault. With the individual venture of bringing in Logan, M&M is optimistic about successful run of this car in the domestic market. M&M will coordinate sales, dealerships, purchasing of components and manufacturing single handedly which will procure cost efficiency and product efficiency.(M&M may slam brakes on investments in Renault JV)

@ezee, you are right. though the car is excellent but it can not sustain without the mother company standing behind it.

Renault vanished in thin air. It was as good as running away. On the other hand Chevrolet has done excellent and has got enough market share by now.

Guess Renault didn't cope with indian market pressures. They might have wanted to reap benefits without putting enough sweat just on fact that they are bringing Logan which is a tested product. But it is not as simple.

Too bad!!!!

Mir... wrote:

...

Renault vanished in thin air. It was as good as running away. On the other hand Chevrolet has done excellent and has got enough market share by now.

Guess Renault didn't cope with indian market pressures. They might have wanted to reap benefits without putting enough sweat just on fact that they are bringing Logan which is a tested product. But it is not as simple.

Too bad!!!!

Don't quite agree on that.

Renault did put in a lot of effort into the entire project. They were more passionate about the success of the car. Where they probably have failed is, in seeing the emergence of trends in the market and changing customer preferences, in terms of design (appearance), VFM, positioning & communication.

Think of it this way, Mahindra has, in the past also tied up with 2 companies, both of which were were disasters. (With Mitsubishi for Voyager and with Ford for the Escort).

What I'd say is that in the end, Mahindra always benefited from such JV's. (You do learn a lot form other manufacturers' procedures, don't you!)

Regarding Renault vanishing or running away from the Indian scene, I think they will stay here for some while. They couldn't stick around with Mahindra (for reasons best known to them). If you or I were Renault, how comfortable would we be to handover our baby (product: Logan in this case) to someone else, who wants to tweak it /un-assemble it/reverse engineer it? I wouldn't like that idea.

Its like somebody is taking a car made by me and teaching me how to build it!!!

Renault should have studied the market more in terms of future and upcoming trends and interests.

I am sure they are still surprised as to where they went wrong.

My fell is as below:

Design (appearance): Indians may buy boxy looking cars. But if I were to be offered something jazzy at the same price, then why not buy that ?

VFM: One of the cheapest cars in the world. Then how come so expensive here, without proper ergonomics and features?

Positioning: When Logan was launched, Esteem was closed, Dzire wasn't launched, Ikon & Accent were doing just about good and Indigo was rolling. So whom was the company targeting with the Logan? (target Customer) They were probably themselves never sure who would buy the car. If they had clarified that in the first place, they could have atleast got a proper communication

Once Dzire launched, the entire game changed. Indigo CS made a remarkable difference. Why was MR sleeping?

Communication: Is it a wide body car, is it an economical car, does it have good mileage? You cant say everything.
Fact: People don't pay more for a car only because it has a wide body.
You just get an edge over the competition. You cannot charge a premium for design in the mass segment. That is just your USP.
So, what exactly are you trying to tell the customer? Why should he buy the Logan?

A little general Gyaan:

4P's of marketing
Product
Price
Promotion
Place

If these were properly defined, maybe the story would have been different.

Wish they recruited you Surya

Found some interesting snippets in Autocar this month






This statement below in particular from Carlos Ghosn however, displeases me to an extent I cannot explain. Makes me feel that we were the scapegoats

A Friend of mine had asked for a Test Drive of the Logan from a dealership. I was around and hopped in as well. While discussing about the Mahindra takeover, the Company guy sounded very confident that the current Logan will continue to be sold alongside the shortened version! That should be good if true!

yes that would be true but only as long as it goes out of stock, in my view.

they are all trained to speak smart enough.

Could be a case similar to the Indigo.

When CS was launched both the regular Indigo & the CS were sold alongside. Later, only the CS continued and the regular one was discontinued.

@ Surya,
The Indigo is still sold in different variants like Manza, Marina and XL and also CS..