In 2005, Dacia launched the Logan at the canonical price of 7,500 euros. That era is over. Today, the brand presents the Jogger Hybrid, the most expensive model ever marketed by the brand. Billed at 24,600 euros, this evolution of a raised station wagon launched in 2022 is equipped with a hybrid engine identical to the Renaults, which allows it to easily lower its consumption below 5 liters per 100 km, but also to a modern automatic transmission.
The arrival of the Hybrid Jogger comes in a context of a general surge in prices which, over the past year, has seen the brand − that it has now become somewhat incongruous to label low cost − increase its prices by up to 20% for certain models. Its leaders hardly take offense. “A hybrid model of the same size as the Jogger is worth 30,000 euros and, if you want a seven-seater like we are offering, you will have to consider spending around 40,000 euros. When prices go up, the gap in our favor increases”, assures Lionel Jaillet, manager of the range. The more expensive the Dacias, the more competitive they are. A real martingale.
The Renault group’s encouraging results in 2022, published on Thursday February 16, owe a lot to its low-cost label. Dacia’s operating margin is above 10%, whereas overall it is only 5.6%. “In terms of cars sold, Dacia was at + 6.9% in 2022, but, on the turnover side, the increase exceeds 20%”, says Thierry Piéton, the group’s financial director.
Assumed gentrification
Dacia’s 2022 report confirms that the Romanian manufacturer, acquired in 1999 by Renault, has adapted perfectly to a sluggish market where no one is able to compete seriously. In Europe, the brand exceeded 573,000 sales, up 7.8%, and increased its penetration to 4.2% (8.6% in France), which helped to cushion the decline of the Renault group. The Sandero, the most widely distributed Dacia, has occupied the first place in the hit parade of cars purchased by individuals on the Old Continent since 2017. Luca de Meo, the boss of the Renault group, wishes “unleash Dacia” and increase its operating margin by five points, to 15%, by 2030 by developing sales of larger, and therefore more expensive, models.
This assumed gentrification reflects a change in nature. When it first started, Dacia prided itself on playing the role of a broom wagon for working-class categories excluded from access to the new-build market; henceforth, the inflation of car prices establishes the brand as a plan B for the middle classes, even the upper middle classes. “Customer flows have changed and we are having difficulty retaining our most financially constrained customers”admits Lionel Jaillet, who invokes the increase in production costs linked to multiple shortages and regulations to justify the manufacturer’s pricing policy.
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