PARIS (Reuters) – Dacia, the low-cost brand of the Renault group, announced on Monday its participation as a manufacturer in the Dakar rally-raid in 2025 with a prototype using synthetic fuel from Saudi Aramco and driven by Sébastien Loeb.
Loeb, nine times world rally champion, and the Spanish driver Cristina Gutiérrez Herrero, will officially race for Dacia from 2024 during the test phases in the Morocco rally.
Associated for the event with the British sports vehicle tuner Prodrive, the second brand of the diamond group will use a synthetic fuel produced by Saudi Aramco, partner of Renault and Geely in the entity of thermal and hybrid engines Horse that Renault has just separate from its other activities.
This e-fuel combines hydrogen produced from renewable energy with captured CO2, resulting in a low-carbon fuel, Dacia explained in a press release.
“Dacia and the Dakar form a perfect combination: a real laboratory to prove Dacia’s robustness and a strong commitment to low-emission mobility.
carbon”, added Denis Le Vot, general manager of the brand, quoted in the press release.
Beyond an offer that is cheaper than many other brands, Dacia is now emphasizing models that allow you to think outside the box, such as the Jogger family station wagon and its camper van kit, the Duster SUV which will be renewed next year and its big brother Bigster, announced for 2025.
This strategy, combined with a move upmarket, is one of the pillars of the Renault group’s margin recovery strategy.
The Dakar rally – which, contrary to what its name suggests, took place in Latin America the past decade and now in Saudi Arabia – had already played a strong symbolic role in Carlos Tavares’ “Back to the race” recovery strategy for the competitor PSA.
The car manufacturer, which has now become Stellantis after its merger with FCA, entered a Peugeot prototype there from 2015 driven by Stéphane Peterhansel, Carlos Sainz and… Sébastien Loeb.
(Gilles Guillaume report, edited by Blandine Hénault)
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