Dacia dusted
Renault-badged change on the cards
Renault’s design boss, Laurens van den Acker, says the firm will phase out the use of Renault-badged Dacia models in certain markets – a move that he says will free up the Romanian brand’s cars to take on more individual designs.
Dacia models such as the Duster, Logan, Sandero Stepway and Dokker are sold as Renaults in markets such as Russia, Mexico, South Africa and India.
“My goal is to have a unique global Renault line-up,” said van den Acker. “Cars that are Renault derivatives of Dacias, I want that to stop.
“I can’t argue with the business sense to do it, because Renaults were expensive for some markets and Dacias were relatively modern cars that were reliable and affordable, so we rebadged them. It helped us gain a foot in those markets. But now we start to sell more cars in markets such as Russia, we will start to differentiate.”
The Russian-market Kaptur – which looks similar to the Captur SUV but is a larger car built on a Duster platform – was the first Renault developed specially for emerging markets, followed by the recently unveiled Arkana crossover.
The one Renault-badged Dacia that will remain is the Duster because it is one of the firm’s bestselling cars in most markets, said van den Acker. The second-generation Duster is currently being introduced around the world.
Van den Acker added that phasing out Renault-badged Dacia models will further liberate the design of future Dacias. He said that the “nextgeneration Dacia is going to be great”, adding: “We’ll try to be clever. I’m pushing Renault to be very Latin and sensual, and Dacia to be Germanic and robust. This strategy is working great for us.”