Dacia budget brand due in Australia in 2024 with Renault badges but safety doubts

French brand Renault will bring its budget affiliate Dacia from Romania to Australia in 2024, but the vehicles may not have a five-star ANCAP safety rating.

French carmaker Renault is targeting an attack on Australia’s budget-car market using its Romanian value brand, Dacia, from 2024.

An all-new Dacia Duster compact SUV will lead the launch, but all Dacia models planned for sale locally will wear Renault badges to avoid confusion for customers – and bypass the massive costs of establishing a new brand in the overcrowded Australian market.

It is likely to be followed by the larger Bigster family SUV, already previewed as a concept but not set for production until 2024 or 2025.

However, to meet its targeted low prices, the Renault-owned company’s vehicles are not engineered to score five-star safety ratings – and lack many of the advanced safety aids fitted to dearer cars.

Above: Dacia Bigster concept.

“We see a terrific future for the Dacia [models], but badged as Renault for sales here,” Glen Sealey, general manager of Renault Australia, told Drive.

“Everything has to be new-generation product. The current generation of product won’t work.

“We would see it starting with all-new Duster. It won’t be released until 2024.

“[Dacia has] unveiled the Bigster and we’d have our hand up for that [once it reaches production]. Any new product that Dacia would introduce, particularly around the SUV space, we’d be keen for.”

Above: Dacia Jogger people mover.

Mr Sealey said the Dacia project had been underway since the Ateco Group – a highly-successful independent importer with a history including Australian agencies for Suzuki, Audi and Kia – took over the distribution of Renault in Australia from April 2021.

“We are still a long way off. We would have brought the Duster in [its] current form, but ADR85 [a side-impact safety requirement that killed the Nissan GT-R in Australia] put paid to that. It was never going to happen,” he said.

The executive believes changes in the Renault range will create clear space for Dacia in Australia.

“As we move into the electrified space, and with Megane [E-Tech Electric hatchback] … coming through, the core Renault range will be moving up. That leaves room for something like the Dacia brand.

“From our perspective, the most exciting thing from Dacia is it appeals to private buyers, and they are focused on an outdoor lifestyle.

“They make vehicles for people. It’s what you need, not what you want. It’s the basics, and good value for those basics.”

Even so, Mr Sealey concedes the challenge in bringing another brand to Australia.

“We wouldn’t have brought it as the brand Dacia. Our preference has always been to rebadge the vehicles as Renault,” he said.

“The top 10 brands make up 70 per cent of the Australian market. It’s 69 brands competing in a 1.2-million [vehicle sales] market. It doesn’t need another one from us.”

The executive also concedes the challenge of a brand without five-star ANCAP safety ratings, but said Dacia’s safety approach was out of his control.

“I can’t change that. I’m not going to be able to change, from an Australian perspective, Dacia’s decisions on where they want the vehicles to be in terms of Euro NCAP ratings,” said Mr Sealey.

“Five-star has been the norm in the passenger space, but we’ve got new criteria coming in 2023. How any brand responds to that, I’m unsure.

“At the end of the day, there is a cost. By being a five-star versus a three-star, there is a significant cost. And we don’t get to make that decision. That is a manufacturer’s decision.

“If they come as a four-star or a three-star, we deal with it as three or four-star. If it comes as five-star, terrific. I’ll have to work with what I get.”

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