The Romanian manufacturer, bought in 1999 by Renault, turned off in recent years and its prices are flying away. Excluding Russia, the automotive group displays a profit of 1.6 billion euros in 2022.
by Jean-Michel Normand
In 2005, Dacia launched the Logan at the Canon price of 7,500 euros. This time is over. Today, the brand presents the hybrid jogger, the most expensive model ever marketed by the brand. Billed 24,600 euros, this evolution of a raised break launched in 2022 has a hybrid engine identical to the Renault, which allows it to lower its consumption without difficulty below 5 liters per 100 km, but also A modern automatic transmission.
The arrival of the hybrid jogger intervenes in a context of general flight of the prices which, for a year, saw the brand – which it has now become somewhat incongruous to label Low cost – upgrade its prices until at 20 % for some models. Its leaders hardly formalize. “A hybrid model of the same template as the jogger is worth 30,000 euros and, if we want a sept-plates as we offer, we will have to consider an expenditure of the order of 40,000 euros. When the prices climb, the ‘Gap in our favor increases, “says Lionel Jaillet, responsible for the range. The more expensive the Dacia, the more competitive they are. A real martingale.
The encouraging results of the Renault group in 2022, published Thursday, February 16, owes a lot to its Low Cost label. Dacia’s operational margin is above 10 % while for the whole it only reaches 5.6 %. “In terms of cars sold, Dacia was + 6.9 % in 2022, but, on the turnover, the increase exceeds 20 %,” said Thierry Piedton, the group’s financial director.
Assumed kiss
Dacia’s 2022 assessment confirms that the Romanian manufacturer bought in 1999 by Renault has adapted perfectly to a market half -mast where nobody is able to compete seriously. In Europe, the brand exceeded 573,000 sales, up 7.8 %, and brought its penetration to 4.2 % (8.6 % in France) which contributed to damaging the decline in the Renault group. The Sandero, the most disseminated Dacia, has occupied the first place at the hit parade of cars bought by individuals on the old continent since 2017. Luca de Meo, the boss of the Renault group, wishes to “debride Dacia” and advance his operating margin by five points, at 15 %, by 2030 by developing sales of more imposing models, therefore more expensive.
This assumed embroolum reflects a change of nature. When he started, Dacia welcomed herself to play a balai car role for popular categories excluded from access to the new market; Now, the inflation of the price of cars installs the brand as a plan B for the middle classes, even the upper middle classes. “Customer flows have changed and we have difficulty keeping our most financially constrained customers,” admits Lionel Jaillet who invokes the increase in production costs linked to the multiple shortages and regulations to justify the manufacturer’s tariff policy.
You have 40.69% of this article to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.