When Dacia explains its “design to cost” strategy, one word comes up regularly: frugal. At Dacia, if the logo changes, the credo remains unchanged: we do simple things. We optimize vehicles to move towards the cheapest possible technical solutions and design, in order to offer customers cars at the right price. A concept of “frugal engineering” that we owe to the former boss of Renault-Nissan, Carlos Ghosn, put in place with the development of Dacia, and the launch of the Logan in the 2000s.
If Dacia today avoids talking regarding low-cost, dodging the demeaning image of the term, we rather put forward the strategy of “design to cost” which consists for engineers to do better with less.
A mode of operation aimed at defining the design and the technical solution according to a cost which was of course followed to the letter to develop the Dacia Joggeras Marc Suss, Dacia’s engineering director, points out: We respond to the essential needs of our customers and not to the wishes of in-house engineering who would like to enter the race for technology. »
Lionel Jaillet, product director of Dacia explains: “ There is no longer any question of installing uncurved vertical side windows, as on the first Logan, for example. Air conditioning has also become a must. We want to give more pride to our customers, provide a more rewarding design, like the Bigster Concept, whose production version, which will be marketed in three years, will not be very far away stylistically. »
This involves technical solutions that are sometimes surprising, such as on the Jogger, which by taking over the front part of the Sandero has imposed on the designers a dropout at the level of the front doors to make the transition with the rear part, or the choice to affix stickers black as protection on the doors. Other items of savings made on the Jogger: an exhaust line shortened by half, a third row of seats borrowed from the Lodgy, while the second row incorporates the fixings, a dashboard drawn from the side of the Stepway and aids to reduced driving. “The only equipment that our customers ask us for is AEB, automatic emergency braking. Our customers don’t want to pay for equipment they don’t use insists Marc Suss, who also confirms the appetite of customers for LPG enginewhich alone constitutes two-thirds of the Joggers ordered to date.
Solutions that allow savings to be made that are reflected in the final price of the vehicle.
On the engine side, for Euro 7, Renault’s new HR12 engine (3-cylinder petrol 1.2 TCe) will be deployed on cars in the Dacia range, potentially in its 48 V light hybridization version, the brand tells us, leaving the last a word to Lionel Jaillet: ” even in a Euro 7 environment, dual-fuel LPG will remain in Dacia’s catalogue. »
