He says only as late as last year did VW and PSA Peugeot Citroen launch models that could compete against models manufactured at the Romanian Mioveni plant.
“Our cars need to keep a competitive price, a good concept, a good production and a good distribution chain. Our expertise is already ten years ahead of our competition, but we must not become arrogant, we have to be very aware that competition will seek to catch up with us and we have to have a better production and a better pace than our competition,” Tavares says. He adds that several carmakers looked dismissively at the low-cost concept when Renault launched the no-frills car. “This is how we ended up selling almost one million such cars in 2012 as we have developed the range. Now Volkswagen has announced it is working on low-cost cars, and PSA Peugeot Citroen has already launched such models, trying to catch up with us,” Carlos Tavares says.
The Dacia range, which currently consists of six models, could extend by up to three more models over the next few years.
“Money is needed for all new models, otherwise we cannot stabilize them on the market. We believe the renewal of the range must be done in stages and the optimal number is eight-nine models so that we have the necessary funds to support the range at any given moment and so we don’t fall into the trap of ‘launch and leave’ – when new models are launched, but they are not well-promoted enough, said the Renault executive.
The future is being built in Africa
At European level, Dacia recorded a 5% decline in its number of registered cars against the preceding year, to around 252,300 units, while the European market declined by almost eight percent to around 13.6 million cars. Renault’s registrations fell by over 22% in 2012 to 1.05 million cars.
“The European market is on a continuous decline and this trend will continue in 2013. Maybe in 2014 could things improve. But precisely under these circumstances is the entry range our ‘weapon’ against the decline,” Tavares said.
So, while the European market continues its decline, Renault plans to use the Dacia range to conquer the African market, where it has already invested EUR1 billion in a new plant in Tangier, Morocco, while another one is set to be built in Algeria.
(English version by Daniela Stoican)