French carmaker Renault SA believes the appointment of a French chief executive and the return of Duster, its former best-selling mid-size SUV, will be key to its revival in the Indian market.
Renault India's Stephane Deblaise, who took over as chief executive in September, is the only expat heading the operations of a major European carmaker in India. BMW, Mercedes, Volvo Cars, and Volkswagen Group all have Indians heading their domestic operations.
The decision to appoint 52-year-old Deblaise was part of the French auto giant’s strategy to give more power to the Indian team in global decision-making, according to Renault Group’s chief growth officer Fabrice Cambolive.
“We have to give power to the country. And if we want to give the power to the country, Stephane is perhaps in a position where he can impose that to the corporate side. Because he knows the corporate side,” Cambolive told Mint in an interview. “He's able to take the power and bring the power in India. This is very important in terms of management.” The global growth officer added that the company doesn’t have fixed rules on the matter of appointments, which primarily depend on market conditions.
“It was important to have a very good diversity in the Indian team. And frankly speaking, when I look at all the structures, the head of engineering is an Indian. The operations are made by Indians for Indians. But Stephane will bring this capacity to empower the country,” Cambolive added.
Japanese flavour
For more than a decade, Renault’s operations in India have been led by Indian executives such as Sumit Sawhney and Venkatram Mamillapalle. While the latter remains managing director of Renault India, all Renault entities in the country report to Deblaise, who reports directly to Francois Provost, CEO of Renault Group.
Renault’s playbook of bringing in an expat chief executive mirrors the structure of Japanese carmakers such as Maruti Suzuki, Toyota Kirlosokar and Honda Cars, all of which have Japanese executives heading operations in India. Korean carmaker Hyundai Motor India also followed the same script for more than two decades, before an Indian chief executive, Tarun Garg, took control in January.
Deblaise had several stints in Asian and Latin American markets with Renault, in countries including China, Brazil, and South Korea, before taking over as its chief executive in India. He told Mint his experience in the Asian markets and Brazil was proving useful in the Indian market as well, since customers in these markets are highly value-conscious when buying a vehicle.
“The market understands that we sell value. But that is difficult at a very good price. This is why we are fully integrated now. This is what we will do in the next few years—sell value at the best price on the market. It's a big lesson,” Deblaise said.
Past master
One of Deblaise’s biggest challenges is ensuring the success of the Duster, which the French carmaker once again unveiled in India on Monday after production stopped in 2022, a decade after its debut in 2012. It faces competition from the likes of Tata Sierra, Hyundai Creta, Maruti Suzuki Victoris, Kia Seltos, and other best-sellers in the crowded market for mid-size SUVs.
Cambolive explained that the company has learned from the past success of Duster, as well as the reasons why it eventually had to discontinue the product. “We have two big differences. The first one is that five years ago, we were not able to develop cars in less than five years. Now we are developing cars in less than two years. It is a game-changer,” Cambolive said.
“The second point is our capacity to use a dedicated platform extensively for several models with maximum flexibility. If I take the example of the Duster platform, you can build on smaller and bigger cars. It means you can feed the market’s needs much more extensively than before,” he added. Moreover, the introduction of hybrid technology in Duster could help attract more consumers, both executives added.
In March 2025, Renault announced that it had taken full control of the 480,000-units-per-annum manufacturing plant it operated with Nissan in Chennai. While the plant continues to aid the operations of both Renault and Nissan, the company believes it now has much more flexibility to make decisions on production and products.
Fighting irrelevance
Renault is attempting a turnaround after its market share slipped below 1% in 2025, a year in which retail sales dropped 10% to 36,420 units.
Analysts said Deblaise’s primary task is to figure out how to sustain momentum for the company’s products. Gaurav Vangaal, associate director for light vehicle production forecast at S&P Global, said a lack of momentum after launching new products has been the key issue for Renault.
“If we look at Renault’s past, Duster did well in its first two years before sales started falling off as competition from legal OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) increased. The same story has repeated across its products, which is an issue the company has to resolve if it wants to increase its market share in the country,” Vangaal said. He added that local management will have to be more aggressive in its sales strategy and build a good after-sales experience for customers if it wants the new Duster to succeed.