Automotive: nothing stops the success of low cost cars in France – Challenges.fr

The “Low Cost”, it works. Dacia has indeed recorded the highest growth of brands owned by French manufacturers early this year. The Romanian entry brand Renault saw its registrations jump in France to 16.8% in the first three months of 2016 to 28,600 units – a pace twice as fast as the total market – and even 19.6% in the month of March alone. Dacia represents 20% of total Renault group sales in France. The firm grows Pitesti also twice the Renault brand itself in France. The small Dacia Sandero (from 8,000 euros) and is the seventh most car registered in France on three months. The Duster 4×4 (from 12,000 euros), which will soon be renewed, is eleventh.

Cars “cheap” are also fashionable. Citroën will market and early April in France, Italy, Belgium and in June in Germany, the C-Elysée, a car launched low-cost end of 2012 in emerging countries where it had remained confined so far. A launch discreetly elsewhere, without any press release or advertisement, as if the firm to the rafters was ashamed. This little simplified C3, austere, very little glamor with its body with four doors and separate trunk, is sold to a barrel price of 13,450 euros (petrol version of 82 horses).

A tempting offer for families with few resources who typically buy used models. Highlight: a large space on board in the category, for 6,500 euros less than a compact sedan Citroen C4 …. but 5,500 more than a base Dacia Logan, admittedly smaller! Produced since 2012 in Vigo (Spain) and 2013 in Wuhan (China), the C-Elysée is already the best selling Citroen in the former Middle Kingdom, Turkey and Algeria. It is up to 117,000 in the world last year, or 10% of total sales of the brand.

A true underlying trend

And that is not finished. Fiat gets going too. With a “big” Tipo produced in Turkey, only 11,990 euros (introductory price), three-year warranty or 100,000 km. Even better than the Citroën C-Elysée for more interior space. At this rate, you are entitled to a 1.4-liter engine of 95 horsepower and a leading equipment (air conditioning, power windows at the front …). A break will arrive in September to complete the range.

The low-cost vehicles “represent a trend, to compensate for the fact that (other) cars become globally more and more expensive,” says Hadi Zablit, auto specialist at Boston Consulting Group. While cars, more and more sophisticated, actually become more expensive, niche widens functional vehicles, simple, able to take a family on the go, without expensive gadgets futile. These buyers financially constrained laugh appearances. “In Europe, many people want to spend less money. It is a rational economic choice,” said Marc Suss, director of Renault’s entry-level car program.

Dacia C- Elysée or Fiat Tipo can also serve as a second car for a household. The global car market “will reach 85 million units in 2015, 100 million in 2020, against 50 million in 2000, recently explained to Challenges Cobe Vincent, patron Datsun, the brand of low-cost Nissan (Renault ally). of this total, 35 million will be cheap cars. ”