Renault SA’s MD says he knows the South African market still wants the Oroch half-tonne bakkie and confirms the door hasn’t been closed on this long-planned model…
The head of Renault South Africa says he’s well aware that the local market still wants the Oroch half-tonne bakkie, adding that “conversations are still open and we’re looking at it”.
The French firm’s local distributor has been endeavouring to bring the Duster-based Oroch to the Mzansi since at least 2016, with Renault SA having on several occasions said the unibody bakkie was “in the planning” for a local launch.
In fact, Renault SA even homologated the Oroch in 2023, before again pausing the project due to what it termed “unfavourable” market conditions. Since South Africa has experienced an improvement in the exchange rate over the past few months, we asked Shumani Tshifularo, Renault South Africa Managing Director, if the Oroch might be back on the table.
“The rethink is there. We have been talking about it as well with the team, because the car was homologated. It was ready … we were about to place orders – we were organising everything – but the commercial sense couldn’t happen,” Tshifularo told Cars.co.za during an interview at Naamsa’s recent South African Auto Week 2024 in Cape Town.
“We also couldn’t agree with the OEM [original equipment manufacturer] in terms of pricing. It’s not necessarily [just] the exchange rate; it’s also the FOB pricing,” Tshifularo explained.
A shipment term, Freight on Board (FOB) pricing is effectively the price at which the seller (in this case, the Renault Group) delivers the goods (the Oroch) to the buyer (Renault’s local distributor), including all expenses incurred up to that point.
“There was a huge investment that they [the Renault Group] had to make for our [right-hand-drive] market and we kept on saying: ‘guys, we cannot afford to bring this car at this price’ because it’s a half-tonne bakkie that was going to be competing with a 1-tonne bakkie. We needed to make sure that it made commercial sense,” he added, suggesting the proposed price would have seen the Oroch positioned dangerously close to full 1-tonne alternatives.
Still, Tshifularo says the door hasn’t been completely closed on the Oroch, a vehicle he believes still holds great potential in the local market – provided it can be secured at the right price, that is.
“Those opportunities are not closed. We really love that bakkie and I know the market wants it. There were actually some people who wanted to buy the cars that were here for homologation,” he quipped.
“Those conversations are still open and we’re looking at it, because remember the market goes up and down. We’re open to those discussions because the customer still wants the car. It’s so nice when you have a customer who wants the car; your job is to bring the car, but it must be in an affordable way.”
Production of the original Duster Oroch double-cab bakkie in South America kicked off back in 2015 (though Dacia marketed a single-cab version in Romania from 2020 as well). The facelifted Oroch was revealed in Brazil in 2022, dropping the “Duster” prefix but again being built exclusively in left-hand drive.
Interestingly, as recently as September 2024, Renault announced a fresh investment in its Córdoba factory in Argentina, confirming that it will indeed produce a new half-tonne bakkie based on the Niagara concept. Tshifularo’s comments, however, suggest Renault SA will continue to push for the older Oroch instead, despite having applied to trademark the “Niagara” badge locally.
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