Latest news with #DenisLeVot
Telegraph
3 days ago
- Automotive
- Telegraph
Dacia Bigster review: This budget contender is good enough to take the ‘ultimate family car' crown
It's past midday in the mountains behind Marseilles in the Bouche-du-Rhône department of France. I'm driving towards Aix-en-Provence and the screen is filled with the yellowish rocky landscape as the engine warbles gently under the bonnet. I'm looking forward to lunch, something well-cooked but simple, comforting and tasty. Ham, egg and chips, perhaps? Welcome to the new Dacia Bigster, a funny name for a ham-egg-and-chips offering in one of the most popular classes of car in Europe, the family SUV, with more than three million sold each year, taking in excess of 23 per cent of all new-car sales. It was only a matter of time before this Romanian-based company, owned and managed by Renault since 1999, grew its version of 'essentiality' into this crossover market. The latest Duster, launched last year, is already making inroads into the smaller B SUV class, while its Sandero hatchback is Europe's best-selling car. Last year Dacia sold a record 31,704 vehicles in the UK, more than Citroen, or Cupra, Honda and Mazda could manage, almost twice the sales of Fiat and making serious inroads into parent Renault's 57,967 registrations. How come? Part of the answer is provided by Denis Le Vot, Dacia's mercurial and hugely likeable chief executive. Priced to sell 'In 2019, the average cost of a car in the C-segment SUV class was €29,000 [£25,434 in historic rates], last year it was €38,000 [£32,168]. So, it was a little bit of the Covid, a little of the supply crisis, a little of energy cost, a little of the cost of the aluminium, or whatever you want,' he says. 'But cars are too expensive and people don't want to spend money on cars any more; they make choices…'. So, like some supermarket promotion, Dacia is turning the clock back five years on prices, except this isn't a promotion; this is what Dacia does. In the UK, the range starts at £24,995, rising to £26,245 for the penultimate Journey trim level and £26,495 for the top Extreme trim. You can't spend any more than £30,000, even for the most expensive model, while PCP deals start at £350 a month with a £350 deposit. These prices are where a lot of the closest rivals start for a car stripped out like a nuclear winter. Does that also apply to the Bigster? A resounding no. From the outside this is a good-looking vehicle, unthreatening, but supermarket-tough with car park-proof grey plastic panels on the sills and around the wheel arches. Heated seats... in a Dacia? And the interior? Dacia has spent the past few years asking questions, mainly of 400 German buyers (where this C-segment SUV market is strongest) what they like, what they don't, and what might convince them to buy one. I'm looking at the results now and I can see a well-designed twin-screen facia with tiles for heated seats, heated steering wheel… Hold on, heated seats on a Dacia? Le Vot bridles. 'Heated seats? Sure. Or people just walk away. These things are the 'essentiality' of the C-segment. We're not going premium, we just coldly and bluntly looked at what three million people every year are used to, and are not ready to be downgraded in any way.' There's lots of intelligent design, such as the middle-seat armrest in the rear containing cup holders and slots for smartphones, along with neat luggage restraint brackets. There's even a camping option with a double bed, as well as versatile roof bars. There's also a rear-seat tilt control in the boot so you aren't forced to dance between rear seats and the boot lid when you have a long load. Those rear seats are comfortable and spacious, with enough room for three large teenagers across the bench, which splits 40/20/40 per cent. It all feels like the Skoda promise of 'Simply Clever', although Dacia's decision to mix up the driver's seat adjustment – forward and back performed manually, with electric height and back recline – takes a little getting used to. You also still sit rather high, and the steering wheel adjustment is rather mean, but views out are expansive, the feeling of airiness boosted in the upper trim levels by a large sunroof (along with parking aids and a rear-view camera). On the road So how does Dacia's 'essentiality' translate into the driving experience? In two words, completely unexceptional. The Bigster is perfectly suited to the job of being a family troop carrier; think school runs, seaside trips, visiting relatives, shopping and more school runs. Or as Le Vot says: 'Right in the heart of the C-segment.' The major drivetrain choices are a 1.2-litre three-cylinder mild-hybrid petrol engine delivering 138bhp with front-wheel drive, or 127bhp with 4x4, along with a 153bhp, 1.8-litre front-drive Hybrid 155 – the only one available at the launch. This is an update on Renault's acclaimed hybrid system, with a clutchless automatic gearbox with two motors, and gears engaged with dog gears rather than conventional synchro rings. The larger-capacity, four-cylinder engine has more torque (127lb ft) than the three-cylinder 1.2 to help smooth the gear changes. The engine still booms noisily if you floor the accelerator pedal, and it requires notice in triplicate before overtaking, but driven gently this is a quiet and companionable power unit, brisk enough for a family SUV. Over a variety of road types and surfaces (and on 19-inch wheels) the ride is acceptable, although it feels slightly crashy on very broken surfaces, and slightly floaty on smoothly undulating ones. The body rolls in corners, but it's well controlled and long journeys are comfortable. The steering isn't the sharpest, but it turns nicely off the straight ahead and feels accurate and well weighted. The brake pedal has a bit of lost movement at the top of the travel, but stopping feels strong and progressive once the pads are engaged. The handling is controlled, with fine damping and a neat, confidence-inspiring feeling at the wheel underpinned with safe-and-sensible nose-on understeer. There are no industry-standard Euro NCAP crash test results yet, but quietly Dacia is expecting four stars. The Telegraph verdict What comes across strongly to anyone who has driven earlier generations of Dacia cars is just how much thought and design has gone into the Bigster. It's simply better in every respect. There is greater refinement, with less interior noise thanks to drivetrain improvements, along with more insulation and thicker window glass. The ride comfort is better, thanks to what feels like improved damping and suspension. In the facia the screens are better designed, more spread out and easier to read. Using the 'Perso' switch, with which you can also select various dynamic settings, for also turning off lane-keeping and speed limit warnings, is excellent. In the words of a sports coach, Dacia has raised its game. I think Dacia will sell the Bigster by the bucketload. The facts On test: Dacia Bigster Hybrid 155 Journey Body style: C-segment five-door SUV On sale: now How much? range from £24,995 (£29,245 as tested) How fast? 112mph, 0-62mph in 9.7sec How economical? 60.1mpg (WLTP Combined), 58.9mpg on test Engine & gearbox: 1.8-litre four-cylinder naturally-aspirated petrol, clutchless geared automatic transmission and hybrid drive system, front-wheel drive Maximum power/torque: 153bhp @ 5,300rpm/129lb ft @ 3,000rpm CO2 emissions: 105g/km (WLTP Combined) Warranty: 3 years/60,000 miles (up to 7 years/75,000 miles if annually serviced by Dacia) The rivals Suzuki Vitara, from £26,949 Smaller family crossover but similar prices starting with the Motion Mild Hybrid, front-wheel drive with a 127bhp/173lb ft, 1.4-litre mild hybrid unit and manual gearbox, giving a top speed of 121mph, 0-62mph in 9.5sec, 53.2mpg and 118g/km. Equipment isn't too sparse either. There's also a 4x4 option on top models. Nissan Qashqai, from £30,135 Similarly-sized market-leading family crossover (4,425mm long) but a lot more expensive. Two powertrains are offered: a 1.3-litre mild hybrid with manual or automatic gearbox (including optional 4x4), or 1.5-litre e-power range-extending battery power. The lowest power unit gives 122mph, 0-62mph in 10.4sec, 45mpg and 142g/km. Nicely engineered – and built in Britain.
CNBC
16-05-2025
- Automotive
- CNBC
Rapid production lead time facilitates competitiveness, says Dacia CEO
Dacia CEO Denis Le Vot discusses the global EV market, and explains how the company strives to remain attractive in the face of Chinese competition.
Irish Times
23-04-2025
- Automotive
- Irish Times
Dacia's boss wants to move upmarket, but without a big shift in prices
'Let me put it to you this way – everyone knows what the Duster is. It's a perfectly defined car; it costs around €20,000, it's very sturdy, maybe a bit rough and tough. What we're not trying to do here is to offer another, bigger Duster. What we are exactly doing is putting a new car in the middle of the table, in front of the C-segment buyers. That's three million people.' Denis Le Vot is one of the most straight-talking corporate executives you will meet. Born in Landivisiau in Brittany, he has been in charge of the Dacia brand since 2020. He has masterminded its massive recent successes, which have seen the compact Sandero hatchback unseat the mighty Tesla Model Y as Europe's best-selling car last year. He's someone who won't equivocate about a question – he'll either give you the answer or just flat-out tell you he's not going to do so. Such honesty and openness are often too rare in this world. While Le Vot has scored notable success with Dacia, he's now taking on a big challenge – trying to take a brand known for its bargain-basement pricing and offering it to the most middle-class buyers of all, those purchasing so-called C-segment SUVs in Europe. That segment accounts for 23 per cent of the total new car market in Europe and includes some of the best-selling cars around, such as the Nissan Qashqai, Hyundai Tucson, Kia Sportage, VW Tiguan, and Toyota RAV4. How can Le Vot tempt those buyers out of their familiar brands and into a supposedly cheap-and-cheerful Bigster? READ MORE You can read our take on the Bigster's individual qualities elsewhere , but Le Vot's not planning on letting the car simply speak for itself. He wants to pull hard on the purse strings of mittel-Europa's car buyers. The Bigster is Dacia's biggest model yet and a crucial climb upwards into more profitable territory 'We've been talking to buyers in Germany, which is the biggest market for C-segment models' Le Vot told The Irish Times. 'And we've been asking them: 'If I take this out, or that out, does it disqualify me?' And that's the reason that we're now offering an electric tailgate and two-zone air conditioning for the Bigster, because they said: 'If you don't do that, I'm not buying the car.'' Le Vot is counting on more than mere extra equipment in the new model to draw buyers in. He's also counting on a certain amount of shock value. 'So, three million customers are going to replace their C-segment SUVs in 2025,' said Le Vot. 'Now, the average transaction price across the whole segment in 2019 was €29,000. In 2024, it was €38,000. And so we're looking for those among the three million who were used to paying around €30,000 for their car and now they're being asked to pay around €38,000, and they're saying: 'Well, I don't have that kind of money.' [ Ford's new electric Puma is on the prowl in a very crowded market Opens in new window ] 'So what we, at Dacia, need to say is that across the other side of the street is one of our dealers, and he's proposing to you that you can have a car for the price you used to pay, but it still has all of the stuff you're used to.' Dacia is part of the Renault Group , and Renault itself has seen the sharp edge of this equation. Last year, Dacia outsold Renault, certainly in Ireland and definitely in other European markets, and Renault's own C-segment SUV offerings have all increased in price too. So at what point does Dacia start to bite the corporate hand that feeds it? Dacia chief executive Denis Le Vot: 'When we talk to our customers, value for money is the number one thing for them, and then it's style.' Photograph: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images Not yet, says Le Vot. 'Let's say that the three million people buying C-segment cars is represented in this room here,' he said. 'So, the part of the segment that is Renault is maybe these three chairs over here. So, preventing ourselves from having such a fantastic offer in the C-segment and making lots of happy clients? It's not a great thing to do, and let's be clear, with Luca [Luca De Meo, Renault Group chief executive] there's no glass ceiling for Dacia.' Le Vot went on to say that Dacia has already taken 10,000 orders for the new Bigster, even before it hits dealerships, and that gives the company an insight into what cars those buyers are trading out of. According to his figures, 84 per cent of those buyers are so-called 'conquest sales', which means that the buyers have not previously owned either a Dacia or a Renault model. Of the remaining 16 per cent, 10 per cent is made up of existing Dacia owners looking to trade up to a larger car, and the remaining 4 per cent are trading in Renault models. 'So in answer to your question, it's only 6 per cent of our total sales volume, and that's still going towards creating value for the group as a whole.' Le Vot claims that 85 per cent of Dacia buyers go on to either buy a new Dacia again or move to another vehicle from within the Renault Group. Such customer loyalty is hard to come by. One area where Dacia lags behind the mainstream competition is in its safety rating. The brand has often resisted fitting the sort of high-end electronic safety gizmos needed to score a maximum five-star rating from the independent crash test experts at Euro NCAP, and Le Vot says that this won't be changing just because the company is now chasing more demanding customers. [ Renault's Symbioz is a symbol of the total SUV takeover Opens in new window ] 'We are not chasing star scores, let me be super-clear about that,' said Le Vot. 'We care very much about passive safety, but on the active – on the electronics – we're not chasing that. When we spoke to those potential customers in Germany, this was okay with them. 'The truth is that Dacia is about making choices, for instance, about lane-keeping assistance. Many of us just turn this function off, and so if it's something that lots of people just don't use, then we won't sell it. 'When we talk to our customers, value for money is the number one thing for them, and then it's style. But the third is 'essentiality'. They don't want a car which doesn't have buttons, which has 55 screens and connected surfaces, and a massaging seat that also cuts your hair.'
Yahoo
29-03-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Dacia to reveal next stage of reinvention plan in November
Bigster follows the design language introduced with Duster and Sandero The second phase of Dacia's strategy road map will be revealed in November, four years after the company revitalised its brand identity, according to CEO Denis Le Vot. Le Vot describes the new Bigster SUV as the car that 'closes the first chapter' of Dacia's modern reinvention. That chapter began in 2021 with the third-generation Sandero – the first recipient of Dacia's new design language – and in time the Jogger seven-seater and the latest Duster were spun off the same platform. Dacia will elaborate on this new phase after the summer, when 'there will be a lot about electricity' as part of parent Renault Group's new Futurama company strategy. Within the next two years, Dacia's line-up will be bolstered by a pair of C-segment models and an €18,000 (£15,000) Renault Twingo-twinned city car as part of a significant broadening of the Romanian marque's portfolio. Development of that electric city car is already well under way and should arrive in the middle of next year, given its rapid, 16-month (69-week) gestation process. Dacia is targeting a 100-week development window for all new cars. Asked whether Dacia might end up cannibalising Renault's sales in the C-SUV segment, Le Vot said he was confident that, given the three million such cars sold in Europe every year, there was plenty of space for both brands. ]]>
Yahoo
18-02-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Renault's low-cost brand announces exciting additions to EV fleet — see what's in store
Renault's low-cost brand Dacia is popular in the European market, with the company reporting that it sold 676,340 cars in 2024. It also picked up the award for the best-selling vehicle in Europe with its Sandero model. On the back of this success, Dacia has announced that it will be adding more electric vehicles to its fleet from 2027, as Reuters reported. Dacia has one all-electric model: the Spring. The company hopes that by expanding on this, it can remain competitive as other affordable EVs from China appear on the market. According to Reuters, Dacia CEO Denis Le Vot said that the next Sandero will be an EV, and it will likely be available at the end of 2027. This is great news for people looking for an affordable switch away from dirty fuel-powered cars. If you were going to purchase an EV which of these factors would be most important to you? Good driving range Affordable sticker price High-tech safety features Cheap maintenance costs Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. EVs are changing the way we drive and offer a whole host of benefits for drivers. Compared to gas-guzzling cars, they offer lower fuel and maintenance costs and produce no harmful tailpipe pollution, which results in cleaner air. A 2020 Consumer Reports study showed that EV drivers spend around 60% less on fuel costs each year compared to drivers of cars with internal combustion engines. Additionally, EVs are often cheaper to maintain because there are far fewer moving parts, and they don't require the use of fluids such as engine oil that need to be regularly changed. Charging infrastructure has been rapidly rolled out across the U.S. This makes it a lot easier for drivers to access public charging stations, which promotes EV ownership. When combined with the increase in more budget-friendly EV options being released, such as those from Dacia, EVs have become more accessible. Making your next car an EV could help you save money while reducing health risks in your community and slowing the production of pollution that overheats our planet. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
