Although Dacia, the cheaper brand of the Renault Group, has recently had great success, the new boss Katrin Adt does not want to enjoy her laurels in peace. On the contrary: “We need change because the world around us is changing,” Adt told the F.A.Z. “Dacia has to reinvent itself so that we can remain what we are,” is her maxim. The car manager, who has been at Mercedes for decades and was temporarily responsible for the Smart brand, found many positive developments when she took office at Dacia in September 2025: The most affordable Sandero model, list price in Germany from 14,990 euros, is one of the best-selling cars in Europe. Dacia increased its market share in the EU to 5.2 percent in the first eleven months of 2025 – from five percent last year – and is no longer far away from Renault’s market share at 6.1 percent. In December, however, there was a slack in the sales figures, which is why at the end of the year there was only a stable Dacia market share of 5.1 percent. A new mid-range SUV at half the price of its competitors. Since the second half of 2025, new market opportunities have been opened up by the 4.57 meter long SUV Bigster, with which Dacia is entering the mid-range SUV market segment for the first time, for little more than half the price of the bestseller Volkswagen Tiguan. The design effort for the model, which apparently goes back to an initiative by former Renault boss Luca De Meo, was quite low because it is simply an extended version of the Dacia Duster compact SUV. However, the shadow of the expected tougher competition from Chinese brands lies over the successes, especially among price-sensitive buyers. Katrin Adt, new boss of Dacia since September. Dacia Adt no longer wants to understand Dacia cars as purely cheap products. For them, this part of the Dacia history lies in the past, but nevertheless in an “incredible story”. After all, Dacia was a state-owned company in then-communist Romania that was supposed to enable cheap mobility with license models. After Renault entered the market in 1999, the first model called Logan may not have been particularly suitable for driving up to a fine restaurant or for taking on a date. “Now Dacia is a brand that is socially acceptable.” Adt draws a comparison to Ikea bookshelves, which are inexpensive and practical, but are not only bought by customers with narrow budgets. “That has to do with being clever. And Dacia has that kind of image in my eyes.”The plan for an outdoor and leisure brandActually, in his original plan for a revolutionary “Renaulution”, former Renault boss De Meo had the idea of positioning Dacia a little higher as an outdoor brand, including the Lada brand, which Renault bought in Russia, as a cheap product. But the plan didn’t work because after the start of the Ukrainian war, Renault had to sell the Russian brand under political pressure for a symbolic euro. Dacia now remains the cheapest brand in the group. Is a balancing act now necessary between a cheap brand and an outdoor image? “We are not the cheapest everywhere,” says Dacia boss Adt. At the same time, Dacia’s principle includes having a simple product range with a clear positioning of the models, with five series – a cheap electric car built in China, a small car, a slightly taller station wagon and two SUVs. As a niche hunter, Dacia cannot identify and address small target groups. The target group is those who, as private buyers, do not want or cannot pay the prices that are charged elsewhere for the company car market. On the other hand, if the aim is to meet the needs of customers, then the positioning as a car brand for leisure activities could definitely be appropriate. Heated steering wheels and electric seats can also be pragmatic. “Because the prices of new cars have risen so drastically, there are also people who are no longer buying more and more expensive cars, but are using the money for something else, for example two carbon wheels in the garage next to the car,” says David Durand, chief designer at Dacia. For him, creativity lies in dealing with limits – in terms of technology or costs. Some expensive design elements can easily be left out, such as chrome or split taillights with one part on the body and another part embedded in the tailgate. There is no such thing at Dacia. But in the studies of drivers’ habits, it was noticed that they wanted adjustable seats for the new Bigster mid-range SUV, and you can now even order them from Dacia, says Durand. The same for a heated steering wheel. The entry-level versions come with a new clip that allows a mobile phone with navigation to be attached to the dashboard. “We will not have colored light displays for interior lighting,” it says. Some savings could also be made by shortening the development times for new cars. If 10,000 developers only had to be paid for half the time, that would also be a saving. Faster development helps in uncertain times For Frank Marotte, who is responsible for sales and everything operational, faster developments are desirable for other reasons anyway: “With a shorter lead time for the development of models, you also reduce the uncertainty about market conditions,” says Marotte. Conversely, competitors who relied on electric drives more than five years ago and developed them for five years have now found completely different market conditions, with a partial return to hybrid and combustion engines. Dacia developed the latest small car, which is due to be presented this year, within 16 months. Otherwise, Marotte doesn’t commit to the question of motivation: “Never be dogmatic,” he says. It’s about tracking demand, customer wishes, usage habits and also the circumstances that influence customers.More on the topicThe methods from Dacia’s early days in the Renault Group, with which the then low-cost brand was supposed to apply old Renault platforms, are long gone, says Dacia boss Karin Adt. Proof that Dacia can also go its own way technically is a new version of the compact SUV Duster presented at the beginning of the year, which technically represents an extraordinary combination: The car combines automatic and hybrid drive, using electrification to electrically drive the rear wheels without a complicated mechanical connection and thus offer four-wheel drive. For difficult terrain, a slow off-road gear is also installed on the rear wheels. So that the car can be operated inexpensively, in addition to the regular gasoline tank, there is also a 50 liter tank for liquid gas, which can also increase the range of this Duster to 1,500 kilometers. Dacia boss Adt comments that having “the very best offer” can sometimes also mean technology. Study for a micro-electric car, the Dacia Hipster.DaciaBut at the same time, that doesn’t mean that Adt is very willing to do market experiments with unusual cars. In the fall, Dacia presented a study for a small car called Hipster, three meters long, 1.55 meters wide and 1.53 meters high, with four seats. The initiative for this development also goes back to the former Renault boss De Meo, who campaigned in the EU to introduce a special category of small cars based on the Japanese model. But there is currently no hope of far-reaching discounts for small cars; the EU Commission has only suggested incorporating a discount for cars up to 4.20 meters long into the CO2 fleet limits. For Adt there is only one criterion: “The hipster makes sense if the customers want him, not because of any regulations.” But the response is extremely good. “If we bring this model onto the market, it would be by far the cheapest electric vehicle.”
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