END OF YEAR UK - DACIA - The budget brand see's sales grow again, every year since launch.

• Dacia sales increased to 26,499 cars
• 1.9 per cent retail market share
• More than 90,000 Dacias sold in the UK since launching in 2013
• Groupe Renault UK records 137,506 vehicle sales in 2016 – up 8 per cent on 2015

Dacia recorded its best-ever year of sales in 2016 since it experienced the most successful launch of any new car brand in the UK at the beginning of 2013. Sales of Dacia’s ever-popular range continued to grow in 2016 with sales increasing to 25,842 vehicles according to figures released today by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders.

Over 92 per cent of Dacia sales are to retail customers and after four years in the UK car market, Dacia’s retail market share stands at 1.9 per cent.

The Duster SUV, Sandero city car, Sandero Stepway crossover and Logan MCV estate all struck a chord with Britons in 2016, with sales of the Duster and Duster Commercial up 17.1 per cent and 61.5 per cent respectively. Dacia’s overall market share currently stands at one per cent.

Commenting on the performance, Paul Flanagan, Groupe Renault UK Managing Director, said: “Dacia’s approachable, easy-to-understand nature has evidently appealed to the British public thanks to the brand’s unique proposition in the marketplace with something for everyone – the most affordable hatchback, estate and SUV available to buy in the UK yet with proven reliability and an award-winning track record. With a fully updated range recently unveiled in 2016, we look forward to witnessing a full year of sales for the new range in 2017 and fully expect the brand to continue to grow from strength to strength.”

Groupe Renault, which comprises Renault cars, vans and Dacia, significantly outpaced the UK vehicle market during 2016, with sales totalling 137,506 vehicles for a market share of 4.5 per cent – up 8 per cent from the year before and outpacing a total market growth of two per cent. These results make Groupe Renault the fastest growing volume franchise in the UK, outperforming the overall market for the fourth consecutive year. 

	Volume			Market share
	2015	2016	Change	2015	2016	Change
Renault cars	75,618	85,102	12.5%	2.9%	3.2%	0.3%
Renault LCV	25,458	25,842	1.5%	6.7%	6.8%	0.1%
Dacia	26,228	26,562	1.1%	1%	1%	-
Total Groupe Renault	127,343	137,506	8%	4.2%	4.5%	0.3%

Since the brand’s launch in the UK in 2013, Dacia has won numerous awards including What Car?’s ‘Best Small Car under £12,000’ for four consecutive years for the Sandero, has been in the top five, out of 35 manufacturers, of the Auto Express Driver Power customer satisfaction survey for three consecutive years and also ranked fourth out of 34 brands for customer satisfaction in the recent Which? Car Guide 2016.

Since relaunching to continental Europe in 2004, more than 4 million Dacias have been sold globally. In the UK, over 90,000 Dacia models have been sold since its launch in the country in January 2013.

Car sales

2016: 26,494

2015: 26,228

2014: 23,862

2013: 17,146

Vauxhall/Opel mulls budget products to tap into new niches.

Opel plans to build a range of entry-level cars to recapture the type of budget customer who in the past bought Chevrolet cars, a person familiar with the matter said.

Value brands including Dacia and Skoda have enjoyed robust growth in austerity-plagued Europe, but the European arm of General Motors has largely missed out after it decided to mothball Chevrolet in Europe last year.

The company has been deliberating whether to enter the value segment in Europe for some time, and management is now looking for ways to expand the Opel range following a multiyear restructuring, the source said.

The move comes as part of a broader European revamp to turn over organizational responsibility for GM's brands in Europe to Opel Group GmbH, a newly created organizational entity with around 100 employees, which Opel announced on Monday.

Opel Group will be in charge of Chevrolet's operations in Russia and the Cadillac brand in Europe, an Opel spokesman said.

Last month, Opel CEO Karl-Thomas Neumann said the Germany-based automaker was considering making a car designed to lure clients away from other value brands.

The Financial Times on Monday reported that General Motors would launch a line of low-cost models.

In October last year, General Motors put its Russian operations back under the control of its European arm. Two months later GM dropped the Chevrolet brand in Europe to focus on its Opel and Vauxhall brands.

GM has made a turnaround of its European business a top priority after racking up some $18 billion in losses over the past 12 years.

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Four years and ONE MILLION Dacia Dusters, hows that for value motoring ?

• Following its launch four years ago, Duster has been a resounding success. Combined worldwide productions of Dacia- and Renault-branded Dusters have already reached one million vehicles worldwide
• The millionth Duster was made at Renault’s plant in Curitiba, Brazil, and will be delivered to a customer in the same country
• Duster is currently marketed in more than 100 countries and made in five factories across the world

Not only is Duster one of the driving forces behind the Renault Group’s international growth, but it has also emerged as the best-selling Renault model worldwide.

“Duster is a truly global success story,” explains Arnaud Deboeuf, the Renault Group’s Entry Programme Director. “With Renault branding, it perfectly meets the demands of our international customers and is contributing to Renault’s expansion in emerging markets. At the same time, the Dacia-badged version sold in Europe and our Mediterranean Basin markets has succeeded in attracting a new clientele to the brand thanks to the styling and genuine all-terrain capability it delivers for an affordable price. Duster is definitely a model that is winning us new customers.”

A commercial hit

The fact that one million Dusters have been sold worldwide in the space of just four years is a perfect illustration of the model’s success. Today, it is available in more than 100 countries, branded either as a Dacia or a Renault.

The Dacia-badged version has proved just as popular with customers thanks to the cabin space it delivers for its price, as well as its all-terrain ability, a feature all the model’s buyers appreciate.

With Renault badging, Duster has taken the Group forward in its international markets and is designed to meet the needs of customers, with the existence of a severe cold climate version for Russia, a flex-fuel version for Brazil and a right-hand drive version with a specific interior for India.

Duster’s five biggest markets

Market	Brand	Total sales since launch
Russia	Renault	151,633
France	Dacia	145,612
Brazil	Renault	117,303
India	Renault	85,974
Germany	Dacia	70,159

Five factories across the world

The millionth Duster was made at Renault’s Curitiba plant in Brazil, but it is currently assembled in five factories: Pitesti (Romania), Curitiba (Brazil), Envigado (Colombia), Moscow (Russia) and Chennai (India).

Dacia-badged Dusters have been made at Pitesti, Romania, since 2010 for sale in Europe, Turkey and the Maghreb nations. It has also been made at the same plant with Renault badging since June 2010, initially for the Middle-East, Egypt and other African markets, then, from 2011, the Gulf region.

The Curitiba factory in Brazil has been building Renault-badged Dusters since October 2011 for sale in Brazil and Argentina. The plant in Envigado, Colombia, has assembled Dusters since February 2012 for its customers in Colombia, Mexico, Ecuador, Chile, Peru and Central America.

Production of Duster in Moscow, Russia, began in December 2011 for the local market, with Renault badging.

The latest factory to join the list was Chennai, India, in 2012, for Duster’s Indian, South African and Indonesian markets as a Renault model, as well as for the United Kingdom, Cyprus, Malta and Ireland branded as a Dacia.

Total worldwide Duster sales continued to grow in 2013 to reach more than 376,000 units for the year.  In the UK, over 9,800, and in Ireland, over 1,600 have been sold since the model launched at the start of 2013.

VW to approve budget car after solving cost issues, report says

Volkswagen's management board will sign off on a budget car for emerging markets after ending a long struggle to meet cost targets for the vehicle, a German business magazine said.

VW's senior executives will approve the car in the next few weeks and the supervisory board is expected to sign off on the project by the summer, Manager Magazin said in a report.

VW has been trying for more than a year to hit internal cost requirements for the vehicle, which would likely sell for between 6,000 euros ($8,300) and 8,000 euros and be built in China, the biggest market for budget cars.

The car would be sold under a new brand, which would become VW Group's 13th marque, the magazine said.  It would compete against the General Motors-SAIC Baojun and Toyota Avanza brands in China with annual production of 500,000 units planned, the report said.

The car would launch at the end of 2016 or early 2017 and would be sold in other Asian markets such as India if it is a success.

VW brand development chief Heinz-Jakob Neusser said at the Geneva auto show on March 4 that it was becoming more and more difficult to hit cost goals for the budget car, adding it made no sense to approve a vehicle that was not meeting in-house targets.

VW lacks a strong presence in markets such as India and southeast Asia which are dominated by no-frills models, and without a successful budget car, analysts have questioned whether the group will be able to meet its goal of becoming the world's biggest carmaker by 2018.

A VW spokesman said the carmaker was working vigorously to develop the budget car but that a decision had not been taken yet.

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