Renault’s design chief says he is “surprised” that rival automakers have yet to launch their own budget subsidiaries to take on the French brand’s Dacia line, adding that he feels there is still “no straight competitor for the Duster”.
Laurens van den Acker made the comments to Autocar at the reveal of the second-generation Duster.
“We’ve been surprised because we know the competition will come, sooner or later. We expected it to be there already, so it’s quite amazing there’s still no straight competitor for the Duster in the market,” Van den Acker said.
Dacia has been a subsidiary of Renault since 1999. Of course, in some markets – including South Africa – certain Dacia products (such as the Duster) actually wear the Renault badge.
“Not all the money saving comes from cars. It’s in the business model: where we produce the cars, the fact Dacia [products] are sold off the back of the Renault network, often in the same dealership.
“It you took Renault out, you couldn’t sell Dacia as a separate brand; for another company to create a new brand, they’d have to create a new network, which is very expensive, and that would find its way into the [price of the] car. The Renault/Dacia business model is unique and perhaps that’s why it’s hard to replicate,” he added.
