France is the main market for the Romanian car brand, with more than 100,000 cars sold there every year and 85% of the sales going to retail customers.
“Dacia is the fourth brand on the French market by sales of new cars to individual customers,” Francois Mariotte said.
It is a success, considering the top three brands are national carmakers Renault, Peugeot and Citroen. It is difficult to beat them, but Dacia will try. Sandero is the best-selling model to retail customers in France, ahead of Renault Clio and Peugeot 208, the two traditional stars of the French market, Mariotte added.
Dacia is now available on 44 markets throughout the world, mainly in Europe but also in the Mediterranean area and even in Africa. Besides its plant in Mioveni, near Pitesti, it also has a production facility in Tangiers.
It does not plan to expand its presence beyond the 44 countries, but wants to improve performance there, because there is tremendous potential. Dacia is a big, sturdy car, and customers who need to optimize their budget can buy a new car for the price of used one, which only helps with the success of the brand, Dacia’s sales and marketing director explained.
An average Dacia costs EUR12,000 and the `explanation for the price is that the manufacturer prefers to keep things simple, equipping its cars with only what they absolutely need.
Dacia introduced the automated manual transmission Easy R on its cars running on gas at the end of 2015, with the diesel version introduced this year. The Easy R transmission currently accounts for 5% of its sales, which is more than expected and Turkey is one of the main markets, where 35% of the Easy R Sanderos are sold. Turkey is a top five country by sales for Dacia, Mariotte said.
As for the Brexit, it will not make much of an impact on Dacia sales, the official said.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)