Photo: Renault
Renault Megane’s fourth generation is set to receive a Sedan brother as early as next year.
According to Fabrice Garcia, Megane hatch’s chief engineer, the compact sedan from Renault will debut in 2016. The engineer revealed this information in an interview for the Australians at Motoring. Along with the Megane’s future sedan brother, the three-door and convertible versions have been reconfirmed as axed.
These would have high development costs in comparison with their sales results. Since Renault is a company like any other, the French manufacturer doesn’t want to lose money on developing a car that doesn’t get good sales results.
The future compact sedan from Renault is the replacement of the now-defunct Fluence. The Fluence was the Megane 3’s sedan “cousin” because it didn’t share the platform with the hatchback versions. It also wasn’t made in the same plant as the hatchback variants and didn’t manage to get reviews and sales results as good as those of the Megane.
For now, the Fluence’s replacement’s name isn’t known, nor is its platform. The previous compact sedan from Renault was based on a South Korean platform from Samsung Motors. It is unclear if the French carmaker will adopt the same strategy for its replacement. Currently, the Megane hatchback is built on Renault-Nissan’s CMF common modular architecture. This means that the manufacturer could easily develop a sedan on the same platform with lower costs.
Asked about these possibilities, the chief engineer of the Megane hatchback stated that it was too soon to comment on or to confirm such opportunities.
The guys at Motoring.com also talked to Renault Australia’s managing director, who admitted it would be easier to sell a sedan version of the Megane under the same name instead of promoting two separate nameplates.
The different nameplate strategy works for some manufacturers but isn’t necessarily the best option for every carmaker. The most significant issue with this idea is that the brand’s dealers have to invest more in promoting the supplementary nameplate, while the ones that have Estate/Wagon variants of a car and use the same name for them can just spend the difference in advertising and be ahead of the game.
These would have high development costs in comparison with their sales results. Since Renault is a company like any other, the French manufacturer doesn’t want to lose money on developing a car that doesn’t get good sales results.
The future compact sedan from Renault is the replacement of the now-defunct Fluence. The Fluence was the Megane 3’s sedan “cousin” because it didn’t share the platform with the hatchback versions. It also wasn’t made in the same plant as the hatchback variants and didn’t manage to get reviews and sales results as good as those of the Megane.
For now, the Fluence’s replacement’s name isn’t known, nor is its platform. The previous compact sedan from Renault was based on a South Korean platform from Samsung Motors. It is unclear if the French carmaker will adopt the same strategy for its replacement. Currently, the Megane hatchback is built on Renault-Nissan’s CMF common modular architecture. This means that the manufacturer could easily develop a sedan on the same platform with lower costs.
Asked about these possibilities, the chief engineer of the Megane hatchback stated that it was too soon to comment on or to confirm such opportunities.
The guys at Motoring.com also talked to Renault Australia’s managing director, who admitted it would be easier to sell a sedan version of the Megane under the same name instead of promoting two separate nameplates.
The different nameplate strategy works for some manufacturers but isn’t necessarily the best option for every carmaker. The most significant issue with this idea is that the brand’s dealers have to invest more in promoting the supplementary nameplate, while the ones that have Estate/Wagon variants of a car and use the same name for them can just spend the difference in advertising and be ahead of the game.
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