Dacia To Evolve Into Affordable Jeep Rival, Starting With 2024 Duster

Sitting underneath Renault's corporate umbrella, Dacia has blossomed in the last couple of decades. The Romanian volume brand had an excellent 2022 in Europe where it managed to outsell Opel/Vauxhall, Fiat, Citroën, Nissan, and SEAT, according to sales figures published by JATO. It finished the year in the 12th position, moving up to the 10th spot in the first half of 2023 when it edged past Kia and was right behind Ford.

To keep the sales momentum, an updated Spring electric city car will arrive in 2024 when third-generation Duster is also set to break cover. The small SUV with decent off-road chops will lead the way for Dacia's plan to reposition itself as an affordable Jeep alternative. The Mioveni-based company has already embraced the outdoorsy lifestyle with accessories and special editions, and will give the next Duster a lifestyle-oriented approach with rugged cues.

Renault Group's design chief, Laurens van den Acker, told Autocar that "there's no serious competitor for Jeep in Europe" before rhetorically asking: "Why couldn't Dacia be that?" Coincidentally, the spy shots attached above show the 2024 Duster sharing the road with a Jeep Liberty.

He went on to say: "There's no [affordable] brand that’s linked to the outdoors, that gets you out of town, which, especially since the Covid days, is becoming extremely relevant."

Coming shortly after the Duster will be the Bigster as a larger, C-segment SUV at a higher price tag but still less than what competitors are charging. Pictured below as a concept, it won't be more premium since that would make it overly expensive.

Van den Acker isn't (too) concerned about the upcoming wave of Chinese cars arriving in Europe. He believes Dacia is an established automaker with customers looking for cheap cars while other brands are coming out with expensive EVs. With nearly 292,000 vehicles sold in the first half of 2023 or 30 percent more than in H1 2022, Dacia is more popular than it has ever been.

Affordable cars will forever be popular, and the sales figures published by JATO for the first half of this year on the Old Continent confirm Dacia's success. With over 123,000 units delivered, the Sandero was the second best-selling car in the first six months, while the Duster rounded off the top 10 with nearly 87,000 units.