Bajaj still in delibrations with Renault for small car

NEW DELHI: Bajaj Auto Ltd on Saturday said it is in preliminary deliberations with Renault to jointly understand customer requirements and business potential for ''very competitive vehicles'' in India.

This comes after days of speculation on the French carmaker Renault and two-wheeler major Bajaj Auto expecting to tie-up for the launch of a 3,000 dollar (approximately Rs 1.20 lakh) car and goods carriers.

If concluded favourably, this could lead to a long-term partnership between Renault and Bajaj Auto for the development of the business so conceived, said a statement.

Renault officially indicated its plans for an alliance with Bajaj Auto on Thursday with a Renault spokeswoman spokesperson that ''We have had contacts with Bajaj Auto and that was about the 3,000 dollar car, but we are still in a phase of making up our mind.''

Currently, Renault has two separate joint ventures in India with Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) for the production of the low-cost sedan, Logan, and the second is a three-way agreement among Renault, Nissan and M&M which is stting up a greenfield plant in Chennai. Renault is also setting up a 100 per cent subsidiary for power train plant.