The better-than-expected results for the Logan model have determined French carmaker Renault to raise its medium-term sales objective from 700,000 to one million units.
Eight months after the presentation of the Logan, the chairman of Renault group, Louis Schweitzer, announced that the Logan sales target would be raised.
"Renault plans to sell 1 million units of the Logan model by around 2010," said Schweitzer, as quoted by AFX News agency. This amount is higher than the 700,000 units the Renault chairman announced when presenting the model in Paris last June.
Schweitzer explained the decision by the fact that "Logan is already a commercial success story for Dacia, which allows us not only to raise our production capacity in Romania, but also to start production in Russia this spring, as well as in Morocco and Columbia in the autumn".
Apart from using the plants of Iran and Columbia, to hit the one million unit target Renault will open production units in India or China, two of the most dynamic car markets in the world, market sources say.
"It is not only sales of the current Logan range, but also vans and the other car body versions that will emerge by that time," explained Constantin Stroe, Dacia deputy chairman.
He explained that the decision by the Dacia management to cease production of the Solenza model starting this spring and to focus instead on Logan production was part of the strategy announced by Louis Schweitzer, which would allow for sales of 1 million units by 2010.
"This year we will manufacture 131,000 Logan units at Dacia, and this volume will continue to rise," Stroe added. The increased production will allow Dacia to generate more than one billion euros in turnover this year, according to the company's own estimates, thereby becoming one of the top five companies on the domestic market.
Dacia will also start to make a profit this year following five years of heavy losses. Since becoming a shareholder in Dacia in September 1999, Renault estimates to have invested 489 million euros in the modernisation of the industrial platform in Pitesti.
The investment will allow the company to reach a production capacity of 750 units per day starting this April, compared with 460 units at the end of last year.
Last year, Dacia produced almost 30,000 Logan cars, of which more than 20,000 were delivered to the domestic market, though that was only half the level of registered orders.
Last June, the Logan was presented by the Renault chairman as a car intended for emerging markets, but the high number of orders placed by potential customers from Western European countries led the French group to announce the sale of new model to France and Germany as well, besides Russia, Columbia and Bulgaria. ionut.bonoiu@zf.ro
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