Renault Duster Pick up officially unveiled

Renault has revealed its Renault Duster Pick up in full guise. Built in collaboration between Renault’s wholly owned subsidiary, Dacia, and the Romanian coach builder Romturinga, the new Renault Duster Pick up will be limited to only 500 production models.

The front fascia of the new Renault Duster Pick up is same as the regular variant, while the cabin gets just the two front seats. The rear boasts of a 1,700mm long flat bed that can carry up to 450kg of weight.  But this not Renault’s answer to the highly popular Thailand market. The Thai market is dominated by one tonne pick up trucks which use body-on-ladder frame. The Duster pick up like the compact SUV is a monocoque. Hence, it cannot carry some more weight.

The new Duster pick up truck will be powered by a 1.5-litre dCi turbo diesel engine that churns out 110PS of power and 248Nm of peak torque. The engine is mated to a six-speed manual transmission. The Renault Duster Pick up features a 4WD layout, just like the Renault Duster which is recently launched in India. The vehicle features a four wheel drive system with three modes- 2WD, Auto and Lock-4WD.

Only 500 units of the Dacia Duster pickup will be actually built for a private firm, and the first 10 units have already been handed over to the company. The remaining models will be delivered in a phased manner before the end of 2015. This new pick truck is currently just a design study to gauge response to a stylised pick up. But, Renault states that it is committed to the pick up segment , and we expect to see more body-on-ladder pick up trucks in the future; may be with some help from Nissan.