Dacia is considering expanding its core line-up with a new model line based on parent company Renault’s modular architecture.
The Romanian firm’s line-up currently comprises the huge-selling Sandero supermini, Duster SUV and Jogger MPV in the UK, plus the Spring electric city car and Logan saloon and in other markets.
The flexibility of Renault’s CMF-B platform – upon which Dacia plans to base all future products for streamlining purposes – paves the way for the brand to target new customers in new segments and accelerate its rapid growth trajectory in key global markets.
At the Paris motor show, Autocar asked the brand’s chief designer, David Durand, if Dacia could follow up the segment-straddling Jogger with more new models. He answered: “We keep exploring different fields. We're thinking about other models that could complete the current range. It’s still a project; it’s not decided yet.
“Many things can happen, but we won’t stay with what we have today without exploring other areas that could make a lot of sense with Dacia.”
Durand stopped short of confirming which segments Dacia could seek to enter. The Spring is an EV comparable to the Peugeot e-208, the Sandero, Jogger and Duster cover off the B-segment in various bodystyles and the Bigster SUV, due in 2024, will contend with big-selling C-segment crossovers like theNissan Qashqai and Toyota RAV4.
There's no obvious gap in Dacia’s line-up, but expansion either side of the diminutive Spring and large Bigster seems unlikely, so adaptations of existing and future models seem more feasible.
Notably, Renault launched the Arkana in 2021 as a coupé-style crossover heavily based on the Captur. Whether Dacia would look to give a similar treatment to the Duster or Bigster is uncertain; it may clash with the brand’s function-over-form product ethos.
One other potential is an estate-bodied version of the Sandero in the vein of the previous-generation Logan MCV, which bowed out in 2020. This would give Dacia a rival to similarly conceived hatchback-based estates like the Ford Focus Estate and Peugeot 308 SW.
Durand said considering an expansion of the line-up is possible because of the reduced costs afforded by Renault’s already-developed platforms.
“Helpfully we have our big brother Renault, which helps a lot,” he said. “In fact, without Renault, we couldn’t exist. We need the expertise of the group, all the technology off the shelves that we can pick to adapt to regulations and emissions [legislation]. It makes a lot of sense to be in this group.”
