PARIS -- After winning record market share in Europe in 2022, Dacia is preparing for a leap into the compact segments, where the brand's top sales executive believes that rising prices will leave an opening for new models such as the Bigster SUV.
Global sales at Renault’s low-cost brand increased 6.8 percent to 573,800 units last year. Registrations rose 16 percent in Europe, Dacia's main market, making it one of the fastest-growing brands in the region, according to figures from Dataforce.
Market share in the EU countries was at 4.2 percent, Dacia said, representing a high-water mark for the brand, which Renault acquired in the late 1990s. The previous high was 3.7 percent in 2019, when global sales were about 735,000. Outside of Europe, Dacias are sold in Mediterranean markets such as North Africa.
"We do not have ambitions to grow geographically," said Xavier Martinet, senior vice president sales and marketing. "Our big conquest market is the C (compact) SUV segment in Europe."
Martinet said increasing safety and pollution regulations will mean a significant price increase in the compact SUV segment, which he said has the largest profit potential in Europe.