It looks like the Renault Duster is set to be discontinued soon with its production ending in October. The component suppliers for Duster were informed that the final batch of the Duster will be manufactured in October at Nissan’s factory in Chennai. However, the Duster name will only be temporarily phased out and Renault is planning to bring in the next generation version. Renault will make the decision in the coming months.
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The company is working on bringing in the new generation model as soon as possible. Considering the Duster’s age and the increasing competition from the Creta, Seltos and the Kushaq, Renault is trying its best on getting the new Duster here. Renault recently shared a teaser for the facelifted Euro spec Duster. Renault’s parent company Dacia had also revealed the Bigster concept which could spawn a 7 seater next generation Duster. The Dacia Bigster is based on the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance’s CMF-B platform which will be used by Dacia on its vehicles going forward. The same platform could also underpin the next-gen Duster and not the India-specific CMF-A platform that underpins the Kwid, Triber and Kiger. The Dacia Bigster seems to be an evolution of the Duster’s design and it features a pair of rather cool Y-shaped LED headlights, a very rugged design, aggressive cuts and creases, a very rugged looking front bumper. For all reasons, it looks like a Duster on steroids. The updated car will also get a new set of head lamps and tail lamps.
The same platform could also be utilized to spawn a 7-seater version of the Duster. If reports are to be believed, it will be christened ‘Grand Duster’ when it enters production. The spy shots that surfaced earlier suggest that it will be longer than the standard Duster. To give you an idea, the current-generation Duster is 4341 mm long while the ‘Grand Duster’ could measure somewhere around 4.6m, just like the Bigster concept. The longer wheelbase will ensure that the company doesn’t have that much trouble in carving out an extra row of seats. The cabin of the car is still under wraps and so are the engine specifications. That said, we expect Dacia to offer the Grand Duster with both 6- and 7-seat layouts.