Renault's No. 2: The question is how can we manufacture more

Automobile Dacia, the biggest carmaker on the local market, will keep production at over 300,000 units even after 2012 when the third plant of the brand becomes operational in Tangiers, Morocco, said Patrick Pelata, chief operating officer of the Renault Group and second in command of the French company after Carlos Ghosn.

“All the hypotheses we are considering for Dacia brand indicate that the plant in Mioveni will work at capacity over the coming years. The question now is how can we manufacture more cars because demand is really strong for Dacia models,” said Pelata, at the inauguration of the technology centre Renault Technologie Roumanie in Titu, Renault’s second biggest centre after the one in Paris. Mioveni Dacia is currently making almost 1,400 cars, 90% of which exported to European markets.

Dacia is among the few carmakers witnessing two-digit growth on an European market in decline, because of the start of manufacturing of the Duster SUV, for which French customers are willing to wait as much as seven months to get.

Six years from the unveiling of the Logan model, the first modern low-cost car, Renault opened its first technology centre in Central and Eastern Europe, a “new source of creativity” as Patrick Pelata himself says.

Almost 11 years from the moment Renault made the decisions to come in Romania, the French carmaker has thus completed its investment package on the local market where it has everything from design centre, test centre, to production of components, cars and CKD, which are exported, and sales centre for all the three brands of the Renault Nissan alliance.