Dacia has sold its eight millionth vehicle globally, with the monumental achievement underlining the brand’s meteoric rise from the national manufacturer of Romania to a major household name that is renowned throughout Europe.
Back in 2004, the brand commenced its exciting journey, promoting a pragmatic vision for vehicles and constantly redefining what matters by focusing on offering the best value for money on the market.
In the 18 years since, which has seen Dacia first expand into Eastern Europe and later into many more countries across the continent, the brand has gone from strength-to-strength. With its models marketed in 44 countries around the world, the brand has gathered an ever-growing following and a reputation for being a disruptive force in the automotive industry.
Although its birthplace, Romania, is one of Dacia’s top five countries, France represents its leading market in terms of sales, followed by Italy. For the second consecutive year, Dacia is the leading retail brand in Europe.
2023 has also been a highly memorable year for Dacia in Ireland with the brand celebrating 10 years and over 35,000 sales since launch. 2023 has been Dacia Ireland’s best ever year for sales, with almost 5,000 units done.
This success helped Dacia achieve a record market share of 7.6% in the European retail market (compared with 6.2% in 2021). For the sixth consecutive year (since 2017), the Dacia Sandero was the most sold car in the European retail market. The Duster ranked second in 2022 and has also been the best-selling SUV to retail customers since 2018.
These two best-selling models have played a major role in Dacia reaching the eight million sales milestone. Broken down by model, the figure consists of 2.78 million Sanderos, 2.26 million Dusters, 1.97 million Logans, 630,000 Dokkers, 346,000 Lodgys, 93,000 Springs, 80,000 Joggers, 107,000 others including Solenzas.
The impressive figures prove that customers have strongly bought into the brand philosophy, which has never deviated over the years. To symbolise the trust between Dacia and its customers, the brand introduced its new emblem – “Dacia Link” – in 2021, which consists of a ‘D’ and ‘C’ connected in the middle.
Further highlighting the brand’s rugged and adventurous nature, 40% of customers live in the countryside. People who purchase the Dacia Spring – Europe’s most affordable new electric car – are the most rural (50%), the innovative all-electric hatchback being at home in the country as it is in the city.
Due for launch in Ireland in 2024, the all-electric Spring also plays a significant role in Dacia striving to address the concerns regarding future mobility.
Having disrupted the automotive industry for the past 18 years, the brand is set to continue its revolution, evolving and innovating to meet customers’ mobility requirements today and tomorrow.
