Dacia’s new CMF-based Bigster will be priced more in line with cars in the segment below it and pioneer a new wave of models from the budget brand.
The Dacia Bigster is one of a trio of new cars coming from Dacia that will kick-start an ambitious push to expand its footprint in the crucial C-segment while reaffirming its commitment to accessibility.
Preparing for an Australian debut from around 2025, models like the Bigster will allow Renault’s budget brand Dacia to better compete with similarly positioned rivals such as Skoda and Suzuki.
Devised as a rugged but road-focused rival to the likes of the Skoda Kodiaq, the Bigster will be the largest and most expensive model in the Dacia portfolio when it is launched in Europe in early 2025. But it will still embody the same value-for-money ethos as its Dacia Duster, Dacia Sandero hatchback and Dacia Jogger MPV siblings – a characteristic that Dacia bosses highlight as a key tenet of the brand’s appeal.
The Bigster will be based on the same CMF platform as its similar-size Renault Group siblings, the Nissan X-Trail and Renault Austral, and is being engineered from the off with an outright focus on affordability.
“We know that pricing for customers is key, so pricing can’t be just a consequence of the technological choices we make,” said the brand’s sales and marketing boss, Xavier Martinet. “It has to be an input in the product before asking our product planning and engineering colleagues.”
Just as the Sandero and Duster are comfortably among the most affordable models in their market segments, so too will the Bigster look to capture a significant market share by undercutting established rivals.
Dacia has previously suggested that the Bigster will be priced more in line with what consumers expect of the segment below, hinting at just a small premium over the Duster, which will enter its third generation next year.
When asked how this would be possible, Dacia CEO Denis Le Vot said: “Our recipe is super-clear. We’re making the essential car. We design cars with zero superfluous content: no screen when we can put no screen, no electronics when we can put no electronics, no ADAS when we can put no ADAS.”
This is a formula that Dacia has already applied to great success with its latest models. It posted a 6.8% global sales uptick in 2022, with 573,800 units, making it the third best-selling brand to private customers in Europe.
While stripping back the amount of kit fitted to the Bigster will be instrumental in keeping its price low, it is the use of existing Renault Group hardware that really enables Dacia to minimise its development costs and thereby the final price.
In keeping with the brand’s emphasis on simplicity, the Bigster will be available with only a small selection of trim levels, but it is expected to match its Nissan and Renault relations in offering a choice of either pure-combustion or electrified power.
The latter will most likely be derived from Renault’s E-Tech full-hybrid system, as used by the Jogger Hybrid, Dacia’s first electrified car.
All-wheel drive will no doubt be an option as well. “We are taking the assets from the group, and we’re lucky that we don’t have to pre-invest, that we don’t have to be a front-runner,” explained Le Vot, before confirming that Dacia will “continue leveraging the asset by introducing two new models just after the Bigster”. He refused to confirm further details, though.