Last Friday, chairman of Renault group Louis Schweitzer was present in Bucharest for several hours. Enough to pay a short visit to Palatul Cotroceni (where President Emil Constantinescu granted him the National Order of Merit, the Commander rank, for his contribution to the development of Romanian auto industry), for a short test-drive with Dacia SuperNova in the streets of Bucharest and for a short meeting with Romanian journalists, where he also answered questions asked by Ziarul Financiar.
Ziarul Financiar: For decades, the range of products manufactured by Dacia was limited to one model only. Can we hope that this “monoculture” tradition will come to an end now, when Dacia is part of Renault group? In other words, are we going to benefit from a real family of Dacia models in the future?
Louis Schweitzer: I think that it’s pretty unfair to say that Dacia offers one model only. The truth is that the Pitesti-based company currently offers on the market a range of two basic models, in several variants: 1310 and Nova/SupeRNova. For the time being, our goal is to improve Nova range.
This amounts to the new SupeRNova variant, which materialises the first stage of integration between Dacia and Renault, taking into account that the model is equipped with Renault engine and gear box. Hence, this model is the first to prove that Dacia joined Renault family.
Nova – which already has a “sound” base – will be continuously improved in the following years, so as to reach the Western standards of performance and reliability.
In parallel, we are working – in collaboration with Dacia, but putting at work all our design resources – at the development of what we’ve called “the 5,000-euro car,” which is to be launched on the market in 2003-2004. This model will not substitute the SupeRNova, but will complete it, as it is a slightly larger car.
Of course, there will be a significant delay between the two cars, as Nova will be boasting almost ten years at that time. However, Dacia family will be counting two members.