Dacia, a company mostly famous for being a punchline on Top Gear, said Thursday that it had made its 10 millionth Dacia, going back to 1968, and it was a Duster. Dacia is as surprised as anyone.
Dacia provided this helpful breakdown of the cars it has built (in Europe they use commas instead of periods):
- 2,6 million Dacia Sandero & Sandero Stepway, the best-selling vehicle to individuals in Europe since 2017
- 2,3 million Dacia 1300 (and variants)
- 2,1 million Dacia Duster, the best-selling SUV to private customers in Europe since 2018
- 1,95 million Dacia Logan and Logan MCV
The first Dacia was the 1100, but you’re more likely to remember the 1300, which Dacia started making in 1969 and didn’t stop for three-and-a-half decades. In 1983, Dacia made its first truck; in 1999 it was sold to Renault; and in 2004 Dacia launched the Logan, which was exported internationally. Modern Dacia is going electric, in the Dacia style, which is to build a cheap car intended for cities and the masses.
Modern Dacia is also, pretty quickly, ramping up its volumes, as it took Dacia 17 years to make one million cars, another 13 to make two million cars, and another 16 years after that to make five million, a milestone they reached in in 2014. Eight years on, Dacia has doubled that number hawking its usual mix of cars that most would consider to be the opposite of desirable.
All of which makes it too bad that we don’t get Dacias here. Dacia’s very mission is “simple, multi-purpose, reliable cars,” which sounds radical only because it would be shocking to hear any of the Big Three say that, well, these days. Dacia, in fact, was feeling itself a little on Thursday, in saying that “their immediate successes make it necessary to expand production capacity.”
Dacia didn’t want to have to do this but its cars are just that popular. Congrats, Dacia, I hope there are 10 million more.