Renault to propose expansion of scrappage scheme to utility vehicles

Autor: Bogdan Alecu 15.04.2009

Fabrice Cambolive, the commercial manager for Renault and Dacia brands with Renault Romania, supports the expansion of the fleet renewal programme to utility vehicles, a segment that last year accounted for almost 15% of the overall market.
"We want to propose that the programme include utility vehicles, legal entities with a limited earmarked number and of course that people wanting to buy cars in a leasing system should also benefit from this programme," Fabrice Cambolive told ZF.
"Dacia already has over 5,000 orders within the Remat programme (the Romanian scrappage scheme) and for Renault we want the earmarked share to be reached. We're in early April and we cannot say we've already hit our target. It's natural that we should not reach with Renault the level reached by Dacia," Cambolive said.
Within Remat programme, both brands owned by Renault received a share of 1,731 units for the first stage that will end in late May.
According to Renault official, there is no cannibalisation between the Symbol model and Dacia Logan, though they are both included on the price segment of below 10,000 euros.
Renault dealer network, including 45 units, was expanded late last week to include a new integrated centre of Auto Cobalcescu, with three showrooms for Renault, Dacia and Nissan brands, with total investments worth around 20m euros.
"We'll launch other Renault showrooms this year. Still, the number of new dealers is below initial plans as a result of the economic crisis. The network will be kept at between 40 and 50 dealers at a national level," Fabrice Cambolive said.
Considering that the car market dropped by almost 50% in the first three months, Renault's commercial manager has not decided on a sales target because of market instability.
"We haven't set a sales target for the new Megane or Renault in terms of volume or market shares because of the current economic conditions that are making the domestic market a very difficult one," stated Cambolive.
Dacia sales domestically registered a 60% slump in the first quarter of this year, to almost 8,700 units, in the context where almost 90% of Mioveni production was exported. Renault posted a similar decline.