None of Dacia’s new models to be produced in Romania this year

None of Dacia’s upcoming new models will be manufactured in Romania this year, marking a significant strategic shift for the country’s largest car producer, Economedia.ro reported.

The new C-Neo family break crossover, expected to be launched in 2026, will be produced in Turkey, Renault Group CEO François Provost confirmed. The model had initially been planned for production in Romania.

Meanwhile, Dacia’s forthcoming A-segment electric model will be assembled in Slovenia, at the Novo Mesto plant, as previously announced.

At present, Dacia’s Mioveni plant in southern Romania is focused almost exclusively on SUVs - the Duster and the recently launched Bigster. Lower-margin models such as the Sandero and Jogger have been relocated to Morocco, to the Tangier and Casablanca plants, where production costs are lower.

The strategic repositioning left the Romanian factory with what the group considers higher value-added vehicles. However, production volumes have failed to match expectations. The Mioveni plant manufactured fewer units in 2025 than in 2024, and the downward trend continued in January 2026.

Although the factory has a theoretical annual capacity of around 300,000 vehicles, output remained well below this ceiling in 2025, with no clear signs of a rebound this year.

A sustained decline in production could ripple across Romania’s automotive supply chain. For many local suppliers, Dacia represents an anchor client whose stable volumes underpin investments in tooling, assembly lines, industrial automation, and certification processes. Lower output at Mioveni risks weakening this industrial ecosystem, which has been a key pillar of Romania’s manufacturing sector for decades.

(Photo source: Chernetskaya/Dreamstime.com)