5 replies to this topic

[mariner]

The Dacia range may be unfamilar outside Europe but t is one of Renault's big success stories. Dacia is based in Romania and had a long history of assembling hand me down Renault models in it's communist days. Once the eastern bloc broke up and Romania joined the EU Renault poured money in to make Dacia it's entry level brand to compete with Asia .It has been a great success and in 2021 had over 400K sales in Europe, with the Sandero hatchback  taking top model spot in some months. 

 

The key to Dacia's success is building simple, cheap cars to give reliable basic transport. In doing so it has eschewed hybrid,and EV power and avoids all the usual "extras" apart from the legally mandated ones and air con. As a result its cars are very light by 2021 standards . 

 

A Dacia Sandero hatchback weighs just 1009Kg vs 1113kg for a similar sized Ford Fiesta and 1300kg for a Honda Jazz.

 

In these days of over complex and gadget laden cars it's nice to see somebody cutting costs by removing weight and gadgets , and, being rewarded by big market success.

 

Here is test report on their 7 seater. In the UK you must put al babies in an isoflex mounted seat and mfrs fit those only in the outer seats so if two  parents have three babies to transport a seven seater is essential. Most 7 seaters cost £30K+ so one at £15k like this Dacia is important.

 

https://www.autocar....ew/dacia/jogger

Edited by mariner, 18 February 2022 - 12:48.

[desmo]

Making great low-cost cars is really the only interesting challenge for automakers. High-cost cars have a lot of jobs to perform, most having very little to do with transport; low-cost cars are where you find out how competent a automaker really is.

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[Ben1445]

The brand hasn’t eschewed EV power, but rather given it the very same treatment as it has ICE. The Dacia Spring Electric is already one of the cheapest EVs in Europe and appears to be selling really well with thousands of orders added every month.

It’s offered at €17,890 (£14,900) in France which after incentives can fall to €12,500 (£10,380). Most other entry level EVs will set people back well north of 20k in either currency. And quite a few of them won’t necessarily be as capable either.
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Edited by Ben1445, 20 February 2022 - 10:56.

[BRG]

And that perhaps just goes to prove - or at least suggest - that the car makers have been making handsome profits on EVs.  If Dacia can sell a BEV at that price, which is more or less in the range of their ICE cars, why is for instance a Mini E nearly 40% more expensive than it equivalent ICE brother?  

[Ben1445]

I believe what they've done (though I'd have to check) is taken the older powertrain tech from the previous generation of Renault Zoes, dropped the power output, reduced the battery size and put it into a relatively cheaply built Dacia chassis with a lower kerb weight at just less than a tonne (a design direction I do generally approve of). The result is a range which is actually not that bad for what it is. They claim 143 miles on WLTP cycle, or probably more like 100-120 real-world. Compared to cars like the Honda E (137 miles WLTP, 1.5 tonnes, £25k/€30k), for example... 

 

What you lose is build quality (they're fine enough but you can really tell the difference if you open and close doors/bonnet in a back to back comparison in my experience) as well as acceleration and overall usability compared to more recent EVs. But since as things stand people are going to need cheap EVs which do the job, I think they probably have a pretty valid strategy. I'd guess the same approach can probably be taken in a few years time with more recently developed EV tech as well. 

Edited by Ben1445, 21 February 2022 - 11:21.

[ARTGP]

James May