Who buys Dacias? I don’t know how reliable my sources are, but I made some tables…
| dacia sales (1) | Romania expats(2) | Overall car sales (3) | |
| France | 11115 | 156,700 | 116377 |
| Italy | 8763 | 880,400 | 118583 |
| Germany | 7224 | 968,700 | 264802 |
| Spain | 5248 | 522,600 | 98337 |
| Morocco | 3735 | ||
| Belgium | 2334 | 131,400 | 31613 |
| Poland | 2065 | 1,400 | 50265 |
| Uk | 1867 | 713,600 | 104154 |
| Portugal | 1328 | 29,400 | 17549 |
| Ireland | 1302 | 47,700 | 26750 |
| Czech | 1064 | 11,100 | 20187 |
| Turkey | 1011 | 11,400 | |
| Austria | 930 | 160,300 | 24867 |
| Greece | 635 | 50,100 | 13606 |
| Netherlands | 578 | 55,400 | 28986 |
| Sweden | 225 | 38,400 | 17684 |
| Israel | 223 | 116,300 | |
| Denmark | 135 | 40,700 | 13812 |
| Finland | 82 | 4,600 | 5425 |
| Russia | 1 | 1,400 |
I don’t have the full numbers for countries outside of the Europe because the “overall car sales” numbers were from a source that only gave EU numbers. And, although Morocco probably has some Romanian residents, they didn’t according to our source for Romanian expats. Okay, you can find those sources yourself, but I’ve included them below.
My theory from these numbers is that the Dacian brand is most popular with ethnic Romanians who link themselves to Dacian roots, and to others who are influenced by purchasing decisions made by the Romanians around them.
Although there are a lot of Romanian expats in Hungary, not many Dacians are sold there (none for this period, according to our chart.) Maybe Hungary is in a different area, and not included in GACO auto’s statistics, or maybe the Romanians in Hungary don’t consider themselves “Dacians.” When I visit Hungary, I do hear Romanian among the customers in the water parks and some other amusement centers, but I don’t hear employees speak Romanian to each other. (By contrast, the moment I enter Austria, I hear Romanian on the road. In Holland, I hear more Romanian on the bus, I don’t hear it on common transport in Hungary. Even in Estonia, I hear Romanian more in areas where residents would tend to inhabit, like transport and supermarkets.) In a restaurant in Hungary, the staff are more likely to be fluent in German than Romanian. From these observations, I guess that many of the Hungary based Romanian citizens are native Hungarian speakers.
We see Dacian sales are also low in Israel. While many Israelis consider themselves Romanian, they probably don’t consider themselves Dacian, as Dacia was an old kingdom that didn’t have a lot of Hebrew immigrants before the Roman takeover. The acceptable Romanian word for a jewish person is now “evreu” or Hebrew, while the terms that only relate to the religion and don’t trace ethnic and linguistic ancestory to the very beginning, like “jidan,” are now considered offensive (even if they were very recently more widely used).
So, maybe the name “Dacia” doesn’t have the same pull in Israel or Hungary as it does among those who speak Romanian as a native language and trace their family (at least romanitcally) back to ancient Dacia.
Another possibility with Israel is that the Dacian brand took off after Israel-bound expats left Romania. Emmigration to Israel largely took place before car ownership was high.
However, there might be a lost marketing opportunity there, talking about the ancient connections between Dacians and Hebrews, or Szekli and Dacians.
Okay, so that gets rid of two of the outliers.
Belgium and Poland are probably the biggest indicator of the “Romanians buy Dacias” phenomenon. While Poland has far more overall car sales, Belgium has slightly more Dacia car sales. Why? There are many more Romanian expats in Belgium. Dacia is still popular in Poland, but perhaps the proximity to Romania (and intermingling with Romanians) has influenced Polish purchasing habits. Still, nothing can beat the cresense of large number of Romanians.
Another group that purchases a lot of Dacians, seemingly inexplicably, are Moroccans. Why so many Dacian sales in Morocco? Here again, the Romanian connection can explain things. Moroccans tend to live in the same areas as the Romanians in Belgium and France. When you enter a “Moroccan” neighbourhood, you are also likely to meet Romanians. Many Moroccans in Belgium and France also spend time in Morocco. It’s not hard to imagine that proximity to Romanians who loved their Dacia’s could influence the tastes of Moroccans, just as Moroccans have probably influence Romanian habits.
This historical link here is less likely, but worth exploring. Troops from Morocco were involved in the battle of Dacians vs Romans back in the days of Trajan. Was this used in marketing? Maybe not, but it is a future possibility.
What about the relatively low percentage in the United Kingdom? Here, we suggest that the peer pressure works the other way around. In France, the country that buys the most Dacians, everyone knows famous Romanians from the 19th and 20th century (Ionesco is studied in school, Brancusi worked there). It is a place where people easily show their Romanian heritage with pride. Romanians in the UK might be embarrassed by negative stereotypes and want to integrate more, and therefore stand out less. Or, they simply have other pulls that lead them to adopt British tastes.
So, what does this have to do with Renault? Renault is now the parent company of Dacia. The Dacia plant in Mioveni Romania has been told, by Renault management, it needs to cut costs by 20 percent, or Renault will close the plant.
My guess is that CEO François Provost has only seen the numbers, but hasn’t seen the sentiment behind those numbers.
Would it be profitable to move the plant to China, the USA, or Bulgaria? Probably not. As most of the buyers are motivated by Romanian purchasing habits, the overall sales of Dacias are expected to plumet if production is moved out of the country.
Looking only at numbers, and not at the customers, can be fatal for any business.
What other options does Renault have, however? The brand should really have bid on the Cluj Metro. The ability to make cars could be used to build subways, even tracks and materials related to smooth transport. Buses, trains, and other vehicles could benefit from the Dacian brand. What could especially benefit are vans and professional vehicles, from farm equipment to emergency vehicles to hearsts.
And the Dacia brand could be expanded to include bicycles, car parts, even scooters and t-shirts. Just look at the ways that Porsche makes money off its brand, there are so many lost opportunities there.
Instead of cutting costs, Renault should consider entering new markets.
https://migranto.io/country/romania/diaspora