It is well known that the people vote with their feet. And if it’s not about daily registrations, fleet vehicles and company cars, many private customers look at every euro when making a purchase. No wonder that the Dacia Sandero has been leading the sales statistics for private sales across Europe for five years now. The main argument for Dacia and especially the entry-level model Sandero along with its rustic brother Sandero Stepway is the low price. For 64 percent of buyers in the five core markets, price is the most important reason to buy, followed by design (22 percent) and brand loyalty (18 percent). With compact dimensions and space for four, if necessary also for five people, it starts at just under 10,000 euros.
You won’t find the electrification of the model range proclaimed by most manufacturers at Dacia – with one exception: Dacia has had the electric Spring on offer for almost two years. In itself not a Dacia in the strict sense, but a European version of the Asian Renault City K-ZE, manufactured by the Chinese supplier Dongfeng. The slim 33 kW / 45 PS / 125 Nm are enough for a top speed of 125 km/h and the small 27 kWh battery pack allows a range of up to 225 kilometers. Anyone driving the small Dacia Spring will quickly notice that the Chinese electric car is not at the level of the other European Dacia models in terms of technology, driving comfort and safety, which have long since successfully shed the cheap heimer charm of the early years.
You are significantly better off with the other Dacia models and word has long since gotten around Europe. The Sandero in particular is a bestseller, but the Duster is also a successful model and the Joggers are doing well. But nothing against the Sandero, of which 2.6 million vehicles have been sold in its three model generations since 2008. With almost 293,000 vehicles this year, it is also one of the most successful vehicles in its segment across brands. The Dacia Sandero is available in 44 countries worldwide. He is particularly successful in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Great Britain.
Since the brand’s restart in 2007, Dacia has made it its task to offer the cheapest model in the respective class with every new vehicle. It is no longer the case that most customers opt for the nakedly equipped basic model, as they did with the debut Dacia Logan. On the one hand, many comfort and safety features have now also become standard in the Dacia models; on the other hand, more and more customers are opting for the better equipped versions with corresponding comfort details. The Stepway now accounts for 66 percent of Sandero sales internationally, and 63 percent in Germany. Dacia is more committed than other brands to its abstinence when it comes to electric drives. If you are not satisfied with the normal petrol models with 49 kW / 65 PS or 67 kW / 90 PS, you may be interested in another alternative drive. 42 percent of all models are equipped with a bivalent LPG drive from the Dacia Sandero TCe 100 Eco-G, which significantly reduces operating costs and, thanks to the two tanks, enables a range of up to 1,000 kilometers without refueling.
But Dacia can no longer completely ignore electromobility in terms of volume. So there was not only a new brand design, but also the announcement that the family car Dacia Jogger will be offered as a hybrid version from next spring. Somewhat surprisingly not with the now established plug-in technology, but as a serial hybrid without a charging plug. The study of the Dacia Manifesto, which was recently presented at the Paris Motor Show, which has become unimportant, is more of a design gimmick. More important is the prospect of a new 4.60 meter long mid-size crossover on the CMF-B platform, which Dacia is planning under the project name Bigster for the middle of the decade and thus wants to be in the successful lanes of Skoda. Because in the medium term it will become increasingly difficult to produce small and cheap vehicles profitably. Dacia will also have to grow upwards with its new models in order to continue to be so successful – with and without electric drive.
