2025 Renault Duster Spotted: Watch Out Creta and Grand Vitara Buyers!

The Renault Duster is coming back and this time, it is bloodthirsty for the Hyundai Creta!

The Creta has had a solid impact on India’s car culture, encouraging more buyers to switch to the SUV party. Such has been its terror that it forced Honda to bring the Elevate instead of updating its City sedan. It even forced Maruti Suzuki to come up with Grand Vitara!

Despite the increasing competition, the Creta remains unbeaten in its segment. Renault, however, has plans to resurrect the Duster in India as a Creta rival and based on the global variant, it could rewrite the rules of the ‘mid-size’ SUV segment. 

The Duster has been out in Europe with the Dacia logo and it even spawned a larger 7-seater sibling, called the Bigster – the latter also rumoured to arrive on Indian shores. Ahead of the 2025 launch season, the Duster SUV has been spotted testing in India and thus, chances of the Duster coming to us are more evident than ever. 

2025 Renault Duster: What to expect

The world knows what the Duster looks and drives like. Hence, the Indian variant, other than featuring a few cosmetic changes, won’t have much to differentiate.

Based on the Renault-Nissan CMF-B platform, the new Duster goes for a butch exterior design with rugged visual elements, courtesy of black plastic cladding. The LED treatment to the headlamps and taillamps gives the new Duster a lot more road presence than its predecessor. Since Dacia doesn’t operate in India, Renault will swap out the DC badge in favour of a Renault one. 

The interiors wear rugged elements with modern lines and pretty textures. Although the 10-inch touchscreen infotainment display and the all-digital instrument cluster draw attention, it is the clever implementation of physical control buttons that add to the premium yet practical appeal of the cabin – something that the original Duster SUV pioneered all those years ago. 

The new Duster features unique conveniences like the YouClip attachment points, which allow users to clip on various kinds of accessories like a mobile phone holder, tablets on the back of the front seats, dustbin for rear passengers, storage bags and a lot more. It remains to be seen whether Renault will bring the YouClip feature to the Indian Duster. 

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Although the European Duster features a hybrid powertrain with a 4x4 off-road drivetrain and drive mode selector, the Indian Duster is rumoured to stick to the rear-wheel drive layout to save on costs. Speculations suggest that Renault could stick to the 158 hp 1.3-litre petrol engine from discontinued Nissan Kicks for the Duster, thus offering ample performance for rugged terrains. Additionally, Renault could also use Kiger’s 1-litre 3-cylinder turbo petrol engine for the lower variants in a bid to tempt fuel efficiency lovers.

New Renault Duster expected price and launch date

Rumours suggest that the new Duster could be introduced in India after Renault-Nissan figure out local production to make the starting price tempting. Hence, a late-2025 launch date seems like the earliest possibility for the new Duster. The localisation could help Renault to position the new Duster not only as an affordable alternative to the Creta and Seltos but also tempt prospective buyers of the Mahindra Scorpio Classic and Thar. 

New Nissan Terrano also confirmed!

After the Duster brakes cover, Nissan is expected to launch its own take on the Duster platform. Speculations suggest that the successor to the Terrano could get a different styling to stand out as a premium offering in the crowded mid-size SUV category. 

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