Dacia, the youngest brand in Europe, and sales to shame some better known brands.

DACIA, THE YOUNGEST RANGE IN EUROPE

• The Dacia brand has enjoyed huge market success since the launch of Logan in 2004, with 2.7 million registrations to date across Europe and in the Mediterranean basin.
• In less than two years, Dacia has extended and renewed its entire range. It has a line-up of attractive vehicles, featuring the equipment required by customers across the range, and with a choice of modern engines running on petrol or diesel.
• Dacia benefits from the quality expertise of the Renault group. To develop relations of trust with customers, all models ship with a 3-year/60,000 mile manufacturer’s warranty.

DACIA, A REAL SUCCESS STORY

A brand recognised and acclaimed by its customers.

Conveying a clear promise of generosity, reliability and affordability, Dacia has won the trust of customers and established itself on the automotive market.

Dacia has developed an offering tailored to the differing needs of customers on each market:

• In Europe, the brand has enabled customers of lower income to buy a new vehicle  ̶  often for the first time,
• In the Euromed region, Dacia has supported the economic transition by making access to the automotive market more democratic.

By encouraging smart purchasing, Dacia is contributing to changing customer practices. This is also reflected in a strong attachment to the brand, which has high customer renewal rates and recommendation rates (TNS Sofres survey 2013).

“Our customers can be recognized for their ability to separate the essential from the superfluous, not only when buying a car, but also in other areas. In 2005, we launched Dacia in Europe with the slogan “Be logical, be Logan”. Since then, the Dacia range has expanded and now include seven models, but this state of mind is more than ever a reality for Dacia’s 2.7 million customers.”

Renaud Pirel - Marketing Director, Dacia

Another year of growth for Dacia

In 2013, Dacia increased sales by 19.3% to almost 430,000 units, buoyed by the success of Duster and the renewal of the Logan and Sandero ranges.

Dacia continued to develop in 2013, moving into six new countries: the UK, Ireland, Norway, Denmark, Cyprus and Malta. Present in 43 countries, Dacia is building on the recent renewal of its range to further develop its success.

“The renewal of the Dacia range and the development of our network have made it possible to pursue commercial success in new countries while consolidating our position in our existing markets.”

Rafael Treguer - Dacia Marketing Director

Record sales in Europe

In 2013, Dacia grew market share faster than any other vehicle manufacturer. Rising one place in the rankings, it is 16^th in Europe and 5^th in France.

Dacia saw record sales in Europe, with registrations up 26% on the previous year.

Dacia reported strong growth on many markets, particularly France (+11.0%), Spain (+80.9%), Portugal (+74.0%), and the Netherlands (+49.0%).

In France, Dacia rose one place to become the fifth-ranking brand on the PC/LCV market. Dacia has four of its models 4 in the Top 3 for consumer sales:

• Duster is the No.1 SUV in the C segment;
• Sandero is the No. 3 hatchback in the B segment;
• Lodgy is the No. 2 compact MPV in its segment;
• Dokker is the No. 2 leisure-activity vehicle.

In Spain, the brand posted outstanding performance figures, with registrations rising 80.9% on the previous year. This makes Dacia one of the Top 10 brands in 2013. Sandero was the best-selling vehicle in consumer sales.

In the UK, Dacia was the fastest growing car brand, achieving 17,146 sales with a market share of 0.76% in 2013, following its debut in January initially with only two models in showrooms, Duster and Sandero. Sandero Stepway arrived in May and Logan MCV in September. In the UK, 96.7% of Dacia sales were in the retail market where it has a share of 1.4%. 

Dacia, market leader in three countries in the Euromed region

Dacia is continuing to make progress in Euromed. The brand is growing strongly in Turkey, Morocco and Romania, and is now No.1 in Bulgaria.

In Turkey, Dacia has overtaken long-established brands to become the 8^th ranking brand on this market. Building on the breakthroughs made by Lodgy (leader on its segment) and Dokker, it has market share of 4.3%.

In January, Dacia was named “Fastest Growing Light Commercial Vehicle Brand” by the Association of Automotive Distributors in Turkey.

In Euromed, sales rose 7.4% on 2012 with an increase of over 17% in December alone.

No. 1 in Romania and Morocco, Dacia continues to make progress.

In Romania, Dacia increased market share by 5.4 points in 2013 compared with the previous year, on a market that shrank by 7%.

With market share of 31.7%, Dacia is consolidating its No. 1 position.

In Morocco, Dacia increased its market share by 4.4 points to 25.2%. Logan, the best-selling passenger vehicle since 2006, continues to enjoy huge success. Dokker and Duster were third and fourth in the rankings of Morocco’s best-selling vehicles.

In Bulgaria, Dacia is outpacing the historic leaders with market share of 10.9%.

Sandero and Duster rank second and fourth respectively on the passenger car market, while Dokker is No. 1 in LCV sales. In December 2013, Dokker Van was voted Van of the Year by the Bulgarian Press Auto Club.

A panel of more than 50 journalists selected Dokker over its competitors, based on the following criteria: design, engines, functions, ride safety, price and running costs.

“We are very proud to have received the Van of the Year prize. This award reflects not only the qualities and success of Dacia Dokker, but also the commitment of our workforce to developing the Dacia brand in Bulgaria.”.

Plamen Kyaychev - Dacia Marketing Director, Bulgaria.

DACIA, MORE THAN ONE MILLION FANS ON FACEBOOK

The enthusiasm of Dacia community fans reflects the brand’s commercial success.

In November 2013, Dacia celebrated its one millionth Facebook fan, illustrating the brand’s appeal.

Dacia has been present on this social network since 2010 and now has an international page and 20 local pages. The Turkish page alone has more than 426,000 fans, followed by the Romanian page with 272,000 fans.  Dacia provides exclusive content and fun activities for its community, such as the “New Duster” competition organized in November 2013 on the Spanish, Polish and international pages. This event generated even more Facebook page subscriptions, increasing the number of fans to 1,400,000 in early 2014.

The social networks are an excellent way to stay in touch with our fans in the run-up to real-life meetings such as the Dacia picnic in France (15,000 participants in 2013) or the beach tour in Morocco.

DACIA, A PROMISE OF RELIABILITY

Reliability based on Renault group expertise

Dacia ranked among the most reliable brands in 2013 in the list of the 20 most popular brands in France(reliability survey by Auto Plus magazine – ratio of the number of breakdowns to the number of vehicles entering service since 2005).

Dacia benefits from Renault group expertise in terms of quality, along with the reinforced processes and standards of the Renault-Nissan Alliance.

Like all the Group’s industrial sites, the Casablanca, Tangiers and Pitesti plants implement the Renault Production Way. This approach, common to all Renault group plants, involves applying stringent manufacturing standards to satisfy one key requirement: high-quality products.

Dacia is also taking advantage of the reliability of Alliance engines such as the 1.5 dCi, the Alliance’s best-selling engine, with more than one million sales in 2013.

At the same time, New Dacia Duster benefits from Nissan’s experience in the field of 4x4 vehicles.

Dacia meets the reliability challenge at a competitive price

For the third consecutive year, a reliability survey by French consumer magazine Que Choisir, named Dacia as the vehicle manufacturer whose cars are the least expensive to service. Conducted in February 2014, the survey involved 30,000 drivers across Europe in Belgium, Spain, France, Italy and Portugal.

This result reflects the ongoing efforts made by Dacia to bring customers:

• vehicles fitted with new modern, fuel-efficient engines,
• a highly competitive after-sales offering (parts and services),
• an excellent resale value,
• and a purchasing price that remains unchanged even though the new vehicles in the range have been upgraded and are better equipped.

Peace of mind in operation and servicing

The 3-year / 60,000 mile manufacturer’s warranty applies to all vehicles in the range. Vehicles will be repaired in any network dealership to the highest standards of expertise and with genuine spare parts.

And for even greater peace of mind, Dacia also offers warranty extension contracts.