Cut-price European brand to launch in Australia soon: 2025 Dacia Duster to wear Renault badge and lead the charge against the Kia Seltos, MG ZS and Hyundai Kona

Renault Australia is still committed to bringing cut-price European brand, Dacia, Down Under.

The Romanian carmaker is expected to make its way to Australia very shortly according to Renault Australia boss Glen Sealey.

“Oh, it’s gonna happen,” he said of Dacia's arrival in Australia.

“We’ve just got to do it correctly. So Australia is unique in its requirements, not just in terms of ADRs. We’re a hot country, if you go up to Cairns, Townsville, if you’re in Darwin etc, you’ve got some high temperatures, so you need to look at your air-conditioning capability.

“So there are certain things that are unique to this market that we need to get right for Duster, and you’re going to hear more about that, I reckon, probably in November or December,” said Sealey.

The vehicles won’t be badged Dacia in Australia, but will wear the Renault logo instead.

The cut-price Dacia Sandero little hatchback is the best-selling vehicle in Europe this year, but Australia is on track to get the Duster small SUV first.

In Europe the Duster features rugged styling and both petrol and hybrid power, as well as all-wheel drive.

Renault Australia hasn’t confirmed any details of the Aussie bound models.

Sealey did reveal to CarsGuide that Dacia isn’t going to have the same budget price point as in Europe.

“The specification we will take for Australia will be vastly different to what they perhaps take in the UK,” said Sealey.

“There’s certain features and requirements that we will have that the UK are happy not to have. It’s not going to be that cheap and cheerful car that you see in the UK.”

Sealey also intimated it would be hard to compete with the Chinese purely on price due to the disadvantage of Dacia’s being built in Europe.

“The Chinese brand’s needs to pay about 10 per cent duty to go into Europe and Dacia are there for free,” said Sealey.

“In Australia, the Chinese pay zero per cent duty and we have to pay five per cent to get Duster here. So already, before we even start, there’s a 15 per cent differential.”

Sealey said to expect the Dacia products to be priced closer to the current Renault vehicles in Australia.

There is expected to be a solid pipeline of Dacia vehicles headed to Australia that’ll add more value items to the Renault range.

Sealey even said he would love to have one of the brand’s small utes.

Dacia showcased a Niagara compact four-wheel drive ute last year, which caught Sealey’s eye.

“We’d love it!,” said Sealey. “Whether they do it in production for right-hand drive or not is a different story.”

“There’s a heap of Renault products out there, but making the business case for a market that is one million cars or 1.2m in a good year, with unique ADR requirements and now legislative change that’s quite significant and could change again in 2026. It makes it for a hard investment case.”