World: One million Renault/Dacia Duster produced

Yesterday Renault and its Romanian subsidiary Dacia announced the one millionth Duster produced in its Curitiba, Brazil plant, only 4 years after its original launch. This announcement was made as pictures of a Duster rescuing a Porsche Macan in distress were doing the rounds on the net (see below). A serious communications ‘coup’ for Renault as it portrays the 15.100€ Duster as more offroad-capable than the 60.000€ Porsche…

The Duster was helped towards passing the one million unit-milestone by record 2013 worldwide sales of 376.000 units. Along with this announecemt, Renault detailed the market where the Duster has been the most successful so far: Russia (151.633 sales), France (145.612), Brazil (117.303), India (85.974) and Germany (70.159). Its recent facelift has boosted its sales even further in Europe: it is up 23% to rank #27 there so far in 2014 vs. #43 in 2013… The Duster is sold in over 100 countries and assembled in five factories worldwide: Pitesti in Romania, Curitiba in Brazil, Envigado in Colombia, Moscow in Russia and Chennai in India.

Last but not least, Renault says “the Duster is a pillar of the Renault Group’s worldwide growth in the world and has become most popular vehicle sold by Renault in the world”. Nothing less.