Renault Australia’s managing director has ruled out budget-brand Dacia for the Australian market until he is satisfied that Renault has been well established locally.
Speaking to CarAdvice at the Geneva Motor Show, Justin Hocevar said that despite Dacia’s resounding international success, the time for an Australian launch was still not right.
“The global success of Dacia is something that means that we can’t not consider it, but we certainly don’t have it on our radar for the time being,” Hocevar told CarAdvice.
Dacia, the Renault-owned Romanian budget brand that has found booming success in numerous international markets, could act like Skoda does to Volkswagen, but it’s unlikely to launch in Australia for at least a few more years.
“There are a number of executives here in head office that would often propose that we should consider it because of its success elsewhere. But at the moment we have agreed with them to remain very focused with the rebirth of the Renault brand in Australia”
According to Hocevar, Renault’s resurgence in Australia is the number one priority for the group, with the French brand focused on growing volume, expanding its dealer network, enhancing the customer ownerships experience and retention rate.
“Once we get all Renault things right then maybe we can look at it, but we will be in a much better position then to see what’s the right way to go about it.”
Even so, Hocevar admitted that Australia is a crowded market, which would mean the launch of yet another brand would be a challenge regardless of its international success.
Dacia currently makes the Logan, Sandero, Duster, Lodgy and Dokker. last year the Romanian brand sold 360,000 vehicles globally. It has been owned by the Nissan-Renault group since 1999.
