A complete new range of Renault Trucks for the regional market has been launched by Renault Trucks Southern Africa as the company enters what it terms a ground-breaking era in its history.

Christian Coolsaet, managing director of Renault Trucks Southern Africa, says, “This is a big year in the history of the company in South Africa. With the launch of the new range we are very optimistic about our prospective performance in the market, and in the process we are reaffirming our commitment to the region. In South Africa alone, we are aiming to steadily increase our market share within the next 36 months from 2% to 5%.”

In the country for the launch Bruno Blin, president of Renault Trucks, said, “The Volvo Group has invested over US$ 2.5 billion over the last eight years for the total renewal of the Renault Trucks range. The overall ambition with the development and introduction of this new range of products is to consolidate our market share in Southern Europe, expand in Eastern Europe, as well as increase our footprint in Middle East and Africa.”

Local Focus, Global Quality

Renault Trucks will be introducing the new C-range that is intended for light construction and long-haul purposes, as well as the K-range, which is aimed at more heavy construction and mining applications.

The company will initially import complete units for the first number of orders, after which the new range will be locally assembled as CKD (Completely Knock-Down) units at the Volvo Group assembly plant in Durban. The Volvo Group SA has invested in the upgrade of the plant, as well as new tools and fixtures to assemble the new Renault Trucks range.

Engineers from Renault Trucks in France are also providing on-the-line support and training to the local assemblers. All trucks will also be produced according to Renault Trucks’ exacting global product quality measures.

Coolsaet concludes, “Renault Trucks adopted a robust industrial process globally investing US$ 190 million in this aspect of the business. Quality controls have been implemented at each stage of the production process to ensure the durability and high standards of our products. This journey also included a great human adventure in the training our people in order to deliver on our promises of robustness, productivity and business success.”