Everyone is expecting the Romanian affordable carmaker to launch its Bigster SUV at the end of this year, but it has now become clear that Dacia has a completely different car ahead of it on its release schedule.
According to Patrice Lévy-Bencheton, Product Director at Dacia, the company’s next car to be released won’t be a utility vehicle. He declined further comment, but Motors Actu believes that he meant the new lineup known as the C-Neo, designed to compete with the likes of the Skoda Octavia.
In late 2023, Carscoops confirmed that the Dacia C-Neo family would consist of a fastback and a high-riding wagon. Both would be stylistically and technically close to the 2021 Bigster Concept (see the gallery and the video below) and will resemble the third-gen Duster, too. Both will be based on the same CMF-B platform as Dacia’s other recent releases.
At roughly 4.6 meters (15.1 ft.) long, the firstborn of the C-Neo lineup will be slightly longer than the Jogger minivan, which can be optioned with a third seat row. For the powertrains, Dacia will likely offer a bi-fuel engine working on petrol and natural gas, as well as a number of hybrids. A couple of mild hybrids should be available at launch, and a plug-in hybrid spec will likely be added later.
We heard rumors about this car coming, but they had claimed it would only arrive after the Bigster – sometime in 2026, to be specific. It now looks like it may be coming around mid-2024, after all.