Renault Exec keen on Dacia becoming an affordable Jeep rival

Categorised as the budget offering within the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance, a newly uncovered claim from the United Kingdom has alleged the Franco-Japanese marque is plotting the repositioning of Dacia as a more accessible alternative to Jeep come its next generation of SUVs.

Ambitious target

A plan reportedly first mentioned two years ago by then newly appointed Renault CEO, Luca de Meo, to Head of Design Laurens van den Acker, the Romanian brand will bolster its SUV offerings to two in 2025 with the launch of the production Bigster above the Duster.

Shown in concept form two years ago as part of Renault’s “Renaulution” restructuring plan after the pandemic, the upsized Bigster sports Dacia’s latest Y-shaped frontal design that premiered three years ago on the all-new Sandero.

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Speaking to Britain’s Autocar, van den Acker said the positioning of Dacia as a Jeep rival in Europe conforms to its “aspiration beyond affordability” mantra aided by an apparent lack of competition in the segment on the Old Continent.

“In my view, there’s no serious competitor for Jeep in Europe. Why couldn’t Dacia be that? There’s no [affordable] brand that’s linked to the outdoors, that gets you out of town, which, especially since the Covid days, is becoming extremely relevant,” van den Acker said.

“[Dacia] is a brand that’s very well positioned for people who love the outdoors. It gives you two reasons to buy the car, not just one”.

Currently, the second biggest marque in Europe with an 8.4% market share, according to Autocar, van den Acker stated while the Bigster will adopt a more rugged design and feature on top of Dacia’s model line-up, it will still be priced competitively in-line with the brand’s stance regarding affordability.

“Larger is true, but premium is not true. The reality is that if you start making bigger cars, you’re up against other competitors. We can’t simply copy the recipe from Sandero to the C-segment: that wouldn’t work. So, we do have to be very clear [about] what’s facing us in terms of competition,” he said.

“Dacia will do what is right to be credible in the C-segment without losing its competitive advantage, which is [low pricing]”.

What about South Africa?

In South Africa, the Duster, along with the soon-to-depart Nissan NP200, remain the only Dacia-derived models on sale following the discontinuation of the Sandero in 2021 for the Indian-made Kiger underpinned by an extended version of the Kwid’s CMF-A platform.

The apparent phasing-out of all Dacias is, therefore, unlikely to see the Bigster being made available locally based on comments made by van den Acker in 2018.

“My goal is to have a unique global Renault line-up. Cars that are Renault derivatives of Dacias, I want that to stop,” Autocar quoted him as saying at the time.

“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 will start to differentiate”.

More expected in 2024

For now, a replacement for the Duster has not been confirmed, but expectations are that a clearer picture will emerge at some stage in 2024.

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