Production of the Dacia SUV climbed to 45,200 units in January-March, nearly half of the plant's production during this period, according to statistics of the Automotive Manufacturers and Importers Association (APIA). Whilst Duster accounted for less than 50% of production, the SUV accounts for nearly 60% of Dacia exports in the first three months of the year, with over 43,000 out of the 75,500 overall units.

The SUV's major increase both in the share of production and in the share of exports of the Mioveni plant comes at a time when all other Dacia models have seen sales declines, and implicitly production declines in the last year.

The biggest production decline was recorded by Sandero, Dacia's B-segment car, which, alongside the Duster, is the best-selling model in Western Europe.

Vehicle production recorded a nearly 7% rise in the first three months of this year against the similar period of last year, to around 90,000 units, according to APIA statistics.

Dacia accounts for over 97% of local production, with 89,300 vehicles assembled in the first three months, and the difference being accounted for by Ford Romania, which in the first quarter manufactured nearly 2,600 Transit Connect utility vehicles, up nearly 400% on the similar period of last year, exported exclusively to Central and Western European markets.

In all, Dacia and Ford manufactured vehicles worth a total of nearly 1.2 billion euros, up over 60% against the similar period of last year, according to ZF calculations, a nearly ten times higher increase than that of the actual production, thanks to Duster going into production, whose average price is nearly twice higher than a Logan's.

Production of the Dacia SUV climbed to 45,200 units in January-March, nearly half of the plant's production during this period, according to statistics of the Automotive Manufactur