Skip navigation
Newswire

Renault says will persevere with troubled Avantime

PARIS, Sept 26 (Reuters) - French carmaker Renault SA won't abandon production of its Avantime luxury coupe, despite technical difficulties that delayed its launch and poor initial sales, company managers told Reuters on Thursday.

The quirky, futuristic Avantime, the flag bearer of Renault's bold new approach to car design, has failed to live up to expectations, with output currently totalling only 40 vehicles a day, compared with an initial goal of 60 per day.

Part of the problem is that, due to start-up glitches, the car until recently was available only with one, less popular, engine and transmission type -- a powerful petrol motor coupled with a manual gearbox.

Now that all options are now available, the company has stepped up its advertising campaign and is now marketing the car harder to try to ensure the Avantime does not end up as a costly failure.

"We are doing everything to assure that this does not happen," Renault sales and marketing chief Francois Hinfray told Reuters. "We must not be too impatient... Let's see where things stand by the end of 2003."

The Avantime is made under licence by Matra Automobile, a unit of media holding company Lagardere SCA .

Matra has until now produced Renault's Espace people carrier at a rate of 200 to 300 vehicles per day.

Renault's decision to shift Espace production to one of its own sites has left the future of Matra's employees in doubt, even more so given that Lagardere is trying to sell the unit.

The technical problems that have plagued the Avantime have been accompanied by occasional media reports of an increasingly sour relationship between Renault and Matra, something that Renault was on Thursday quick to brush aside.

"There is no problem in the relationship between Matra and ourselves," said Renault Executive Vice President Pierre-Alain de Smedt.

He said he was confident that Avantime production would eventually reach 60 cars per day once consumers are made more aware of it.