The current-generation Dacia Sandero was launched in December 2020 as Britain’s cheapest car – priced from a whisker under £8000. Today, less than three years later, the most affordable version of the Renault Group brand’s hatchback costs £13,795.
That cars are getting ever more expensive is no secret: inflationary pressures, the increasing cost of legislative compliance, logistical headaches and supply constrictions are together conspiring to hike up the list price of cars from all brands and in all segments. But the impact on Dacia is arguably most tangible given its historic billing as the purveyor of the cheapest cars on the market.
Although its cars remain among the most competitively priced in their respective fields, bargain-basement pricing structures are no longer Dacia’s modus operandi, and the days of the sub-£10k Sandero are long since past. Not only that, but the brand will now expand its range upwards to compete in the fearsome European C-segment, armed with the Skoda Kodiaq-rivalling Bigster and two more future models besides. These cars could feasibly take Dacia well into the £30,000s in range-topping forms – a realm that would have previously been unthinkable for the Romanian brand to occupy.
But, as Dacia’s sales and marketing boss Xavier Martinet explained, striving to be the market’s cheapest car brand is a precarious position to occupy. “At the end of the day, you can be interesting at £9000 with a basic customer proposition, you cannot do it at £13,000, £14,000, £15,000. At that price level, for a basic car, a low-cost car customer would go to the used car market,” he said.
Plus, the need to remain profitable means the relentless pursuit of volume at all costs is no longer a viable business model. “With the evolution of pollution and ADAS expectations as well, and with the GSR2 (safety regulations) coming, we cannot build a £9000 car any more and make money out of it,” added Martinet.
Add your comment