Forbidden update for budget off-road SUV: 2026 Renault Duster has a fresh face, new tech and safety features in India to rival the Suzuki Jimny, Subaru Crosstrek, Hyundai Kona and Kia Seltos

Renault has announced the Duster small SUV is returning to the Indian market in new-generation guise.

This Indian-built version of the Renault Duster features some notable differences over the European-built, Australian-specification version.

Most notable is slightly different exterior styling, including altered front and rear fascias, revised LED headlights, LED tail-lights that are connected by a rear light bar, ‘Duster’ script written out on the grille instead of ‘Renault’, all-black 18-inch alloy wheels, plus the availability of a panoramic glass sunroof.

Add CarsGuide as a preferred source in Google Search

Read More About Renault Duster

This Indian-specification Duster is launching in a special Launch Edition guise, which features green exterior paint with yellow highlights.

Inside there is a larger 10.25-inch digital instrument cluster, a 10.1-inch touchscreen multimedia system that has Google Built-in, interior ambient lighting, plus synthetic leather upholstery with front seat ventilation.

Additionally there are new safety features such as adaptive cruise control with stop and go and a proper surround-view camera are offered. This is on top of the standard autonomous emergency braking (AEB), lane-keep assist and traffic sign recognition.

In India three powertrains are set to be offered. A 1.0-litre three-cylinder turbo-petrol engine producing 74kW and 172Nm is mated with a six-speed manual transmission, a 1.3-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol engine producing 119kW and 280Nm is mated to a six-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission, as well as a 1.8-litre hybrid engine.

2026 Renault Duster (Indian-specification version)

It’s understood all three powertrains offered in this Indian-specification Duster are front-wheel drive only.

In Australia the Duster is currently offered with a 1.3-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol engine with a seven-speed dual-clutch and front-wheel drive, or a 1.2-litre three-cylinder mild-hybrid petrol engine with a six-speed manual transmission and all-wheel drive.

"Renault Australia sources Duster from Europe," said a Renault Australia spokesperson. CarsGuide understands there are no foreseeable changes on this.

2026 Renault Duster (Indian-specification version)

The European-built Renault Duster only launched in Australia in the middle of 2025. Two trim levels are offered – Evolution and Techno – with both powertrains offered on each.

Until the end of 2025 a total of 207 examples of the Duster were sold. While this does place it at the lower end of the small SUV segment in terms of outright sales, it did outsell the Jeep Compass (147 sales) and almost the Renault Arkana (226 sales) even with only around six months of sales.