In a build up to the Renault Captur’s launch in India, the French automaker recently released a promotional video which highlighted the widespread accolades the international version of the compact crossover has amassed over time.
The ad states that over 1 million cars have been sold globally till now. On sale in more than 75 countries. Winner of multiple awards across many countries. The video ended with the line, NOW IN INDIA.
This caught the attention of enthusiasts at Team-BHP?. They are of the opinion that such a promotion would make sense in most cases, but considering the India-spec car is entirely different under the skin from the one sold in Europe, it doesn’t.
Soon after the post on Team-BHP went viral, Renault India removed the original video from their Youtube channel. But before it was removed, some folks had downloaded and re-uploaded it on YouTube, and it can be watched below. As per one Team-BHP user, the video is grossly misleading for Indian customers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aE4m7jIxqSI
In case the YouTube embed does not work, you can watch the ad here.
Yes, both versions go by the nameplate Captur, and they do look almost identical but there are entirely different cars for all practical reasons. For starters, the Europe-spec model is underpinned by the highly successful Clio hatchback platform and has a 5-star safety rating in Euro-NCAP crash tests. The India-spec version, which is larger and taller, is based on the Duster’s underpinnings. It’s to be noted that Dacia Duster for Europe has a lacklustre 3-star Euro-NCAP safety rating.
India-spec Captur is essentially an emerging market-spec lookalike of the superior Euro-spec crossover. The version which is set to be launched here is comparable to the one which is on sale in markets like Brazil and Russia.
On their part, Renault India has never claimed that they will be launching the Euro-spec Captur here. In fact, the official communication given to the media during the first drive also highlighted that the Captur for India is based on the B0 platform and not the B platform, on which the Euro-spec Captur is based. Renault India maintains that they have never claimed that the India-spec Captur is the same as Euro-spec Captur. But then, why the ad?
