Dacia boosts sales by 71% in Turkey

Hurriyet Daily News (Istanbul) - Renault Mais, the Turkish producer and distributor of the French auto giant, sold 8,625 Dacia cars during the first five months of the year, according to İbrahim Aybar, general manager of Renault Mais. The figure represents a 71 percent annual increase.

Dacia ended last year with a total of 19,168 sales, including 13,230 passenger cars and 5,938 light commercial vehicles. Aybar said the brand increased its market share to 2.36 percent and 2.4 percent in these categories, respectively.

Noting that with a nearly 2.5 percent market share, Dacia ranks among the top 10 automobile brands that registered the highest sales figures last year, Aybar said: "During the first five months of 2011, we sold 8,625 Dacia cars, including 6,641 passenger cars and 1,985 light commercial vehicles."

Dacia's market share increased to 2.6 percent by the end of April. This is an indicator of the good performance of the brand, Aybar said. Sales of Dacia in May were also very satisfactory, the manager said.

"Our target is to reach a 3 percent market share with Dacia and rank among the top 10 brands by the end of 2011," Aybar said. "Among markets that feature annual sales of under 1 million units, Turkey ranks second for Dacia, behind [its home country of] Romania."

Dacia's Sandero and Duster models have had a great positive impact on the increase of passenger car sales, according to Aybar.

Commenting on the Turkish automotive sector in general, Aybar said sales have accelerated considerably, but this trend will gradually decrease.

"We do not expect automotive sales to continue in a high volume, but the important thing is to catch stability at these levels," Aybar said. "In case of no diversification in the capacity of the market, imports may tend to rise. Therefore we need to increase domestic variety."