► New Dacia hatchback and saloon incoming
► Those plus Bigster SUV will fill ‘C-segment’
► Part of brand’s new model offensive
Dacia is firmly planting roots in the ‘C-segment’ of the car market with two more models on the way after the Bigster SUV.
The brand is chasing some of the biggest car volume segments in Europe here, with the ‘C-segment’ being industry shorthand for cars like the VW Golf and Vauxhall Astra, as well as SUVs like the Nissan Qashqai and Hyundai Tucson.
‘We are working on two different bodies, additional [to the current range],’ Le Vot told CAR magazine at the 2024 Geneva motor show. ‘The very same platform, the very same factory, the very same everything in order to remain competitive.’
But will they be SUVs? ‘No, we’re going to be more innovative than that,’ adds Le Vot (pictured below). ‘We already have two SUVs with the Duster and Bigster, so now let’s see what are the projected needs of transportation… family movers… whatever you want, in the future.’
‘The C-segment is made out of several sub-segments,’ Patrice Levy-Bencheton, Dacia’s VP for product performance, tells us at the 2024 Paris motor show. ‘The biggest is C-SUV, so it makes sense for us to start there [with Bigster]. But there are other parts, of course, and our willingness is to totally cover all parts of that segment.’
That means the most likely other models Dacia is cooking up are a family hatchback and a saloon model. Our exclusive artist’s impression by Andrei Avarvari reveals our depiction of the Dacia hatchback, expected to launch in 2025. It combines Sandero DNA with the latest look of the brand’s rough-n-tumble SUVs, as espoused by the latest Duster and Bigster, but in a more compact footprint.
Much like Bigster, Dacia’s new C-segment models will run on CMF-B – the same architecture as everything else Dacia currently sells aside from the Spring EV. That also means these new C-segment models will almost certainly use the Renault Group’s E-Tech Hybrid powertrain but won’t be electric. Want a larger electric Dacia? You’ll have to wait for the Sandero EV due in 2027.
Le Vot recognises there is space for Dacia to grow in this segment on top of offering the Bigster. ‘We’re going into the biggest swimming pool in Europe, which is the C-Crossover segment – that’s 2.5m cars,’ says Le Vot. ‘We just want a little chunk of these people to consider the possibility of buying this. And the biggest C-segments in Europe are Germany and the UK – these people are really important for our presence.’