► C-segment car, at 4.6 meteres long
► Enters production in 2025
► Part of Renault shake-up
Dacia has revealed a new crossover concept that’s bigger than the Duster and would take the Renault subsidiary into hybrid territory for the first time.
The Bigster is a C-segment car, around 4.6 metres long – that’s about a foot longer than the Duster, and similar to the Nissan X-Trail – but is built on the CMF-B platform that underpins the smaller Dacia Sandero, Renault Clio and Renault Captur.
Expect it to be in production by 2025, priced at the level you’d expect to pay for another company’s offering from one size down.
Aside from the eye-catching Y-shaped LED light clutsters, the Bigster is relatively simple and unadorned, by concept standards, and includes deliberately rough-looking recycled plastics for the protective exterior panels. Dacia has not revealed any technical details but says hybird and other green options are possible.
Dacia design director Alejandro Mesonero-Romanos said: ‘Dacia Bigster Concept epitomises the evolution of the brand. Essential, with a touch of cool and an outdoor spirit.’
The concept was unveiled at the same time as parent company Renault announced that Dacia would be working more closely with Lada, owned by Renault since 2017 and currently huge in its native Russia.
The Niva will return as a rugged 4×4 available in two body sizes. No word yet on whether it will come to the UK, but Renault says Lada will definitely expand beyond Russia.
As part of the group’s cost-cutting plans, Dacia and Lada will move from four platforms to one, and from 18 bodies to 11. Unlike the current Dacia line-up, the future products will be available as hybrids and possibly LPG.
The Sandero and Sandero Stepway arrive this spring. The Duster gets a facelift later this year. The all-new Spring, an electric city car based on the Chinese-market Renault City K-ZE, also arrives in 2021.