Duster cleans up on stalling SUV market

SUV sales on the local market are far from being at full throttle as they were a few years ago. Market specialists say sales dropped by half in the first seven months of this year compared with the same period of last year. However, those SUVs priced more modestly haven’t lost their allure. More, the Duster model has made waves on the local market, but even more so abroad where it makes up some 90 percent of the Mioveni factory’s production.

Dana Ciuraru

“Because of poor market conditions, we have orders from the company’s management not to disclose any information about the number of SUVs sold this year,” an official from a car importer told Business Review.

A peek at the July data released by the Producers and Importers Car Association (APIA) suggests that these are worrying times for SUV importers. According to the statistics, the major SUV importers with operations on the local market will probably have difficulties in matching last year’s results, already dramatically falling.

Moreover, market specialists say that comparable sales on the SUV segment have decelerated from 6,400 units in 2009 to just 3,500 cars in the first seven months of this year.

But the crisis, unpredictable fiscal changes such as the VAT hike and the increasing demand for second-hand SUVs which can be less expensive seem to have alarmed the dealers that market top of the line SUVs, to the benefit of cheaper models.

Duster, a speck of light on a falling segment

Mazda officials told BR that the firm had sold 98 CX-7 models until July, a 78 percent hike compared with the same period of last year, when it moved just 55. According to Dragos Grapinoiu, marketing manager at Mazda, this year’s sales made up 18 percent of the total, compared with the imports market where SUV sales accounted just for barely 9 percent.

“Since Mazda launched the diesel version at the end of last year customers have moved towards the 2.2 Euro 5 version at high equipment levels,” says Grapinoiu. According to company information, the CX-7 price varies between EUR 29,400 and EUR 35,000.

Grapinoiu tells BR that the old car replacement program has also boosted Mazda’s sales.

But the most spectacular hike was recorded by Dacia’s Duster model, which costs around EUR 14,000. Dacia’s SUV, the first such model produced by the Mioveni factory, saw production reach about 36,000 units, representing some EUR 550 million, since it was launched in March.

Dacia officials have announced that the carmaker will increase production of the Duster from the current 20 units per hour to 25 in October and then 35 at the beginning of next year. The Duster will thus take the carmaker’s production in Mioveni to 330,000 vehicles this year, a record for the plant, with Fabrice Cambolive, the commercial manager of the brand, expecting a “1.8 percent share of the overall European market,” up from the 1.7 percent share held by the Romanian brand in June.

The Duster has made a significant contribution to the production increase, with Dacia receiving orders for 35,000 SUVs, mostly from Western Europe. Only 15,000 units have been delivered so far, 1,500 of them in Romania. And the big plans do not stop here. Recently, Renault has announced that it will begin production of the Duster in Russia under the Renault symbol.

Small is the new big

Driven by the low demand, carmakers have readjusted their offer by announcing that they will bring smaller SUV models onto the market. As such, BMW Group Romania, importer of the BMW and Mini brands on the local market, will launch in the second half of next month the new Mini Countryman, the first SUV in the English manufacturer’s range. Prices start at EUR 21,142 for the basic version. Meanwhile, Renault-Nissan Romania has announced that it will launch the new Juke in the second half of this year. Juke is the smallest SUV in the Nissan range, positioned in the lower class as Qashqai. Local market prices have not yet been disclosed, but on the Spanish market they start at EUR 16,000.

Despite the importer’s hurry to bring these new models onto the market, the Mioveni factory

has stolen the thunder and keeps scoring top points for sales and revenue.

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