PARIS — By virtually any measure, Dacia has been successful story for Renault Group.
After shopping for a majority stake within the Soviet-era Romanian model in 1999, Renault used Dacia as a launching pad for its Logan mission — a no-frills small automobile that undercut the competitors by 1000’s of {dollars}. Even now, the bottom Sandero small automobile is lower than 11,000 euros.
Dacia has bought 7.5 million automobiles because the Logan’s launch in 2004, and this 12 months is the third-best-selling model to personal patrons in Europe. Its “design to cost” formulation, which depends on frugal use of current Renault-Nissan Alliance know-how and low wage manufacturing in Romania and Morocco, has led to margins that handily outpace the group’s namesake model, though Renault doesn’t disclose precise figures.
Now, Renault is recalibrating the Dacia formulation. “Unbelievably low prices” is out, and “best value for money” is in.
“It’s not ‘low cost.’ We are concentrating on the essentials,” gross sales and advertising and marketing chief Xavier Martinet mentioned Tuesday at a media occasion exterior Paris.
That would possibly appear to be a delicate shift, however Dacia executives say it displays a transfer throughout all socioeconomic teams to be extra cautious shoppers, given issues about local weather change and sustainability, inflation and vitality prices, and the coronavirus pandemic.
Dacia has thrived previously 12 months, which has been marked by the semiconductor scarcity and financial uncertainty. The Sandero, the model’s finest vendor, ranked second within the small automobile section within the first half of 2022, in line with figures from Dataforce, and was the one mannequin within the prime 10 to register a gross sales achieve.
Dacia elevated its market share to 4 % within the first half from 2.9 % in 2021, in line with trade lobbying group ACEA. Overall gross sales have been up 18 %, essentially the most of any quantity automaker, in line with ACEA.
A transfer into the compact segments away from small automobiles, which began this 12 months with the launch of the Jogger seven-seat crossover, will enhance the model’s pool of potential patrons to 13 million from about 5 million, model CEO Denis Le Vot mentioned.
Source: europe.autonews.com
