​Dacia is testing the Duster 3 at the technical center in Titus, production at the plant will begin before the end of the year, and the car will be released in the first months of 2024. The first generation of Duster was released in 2010, and the second, seven years later. The SUV makes up two-thirds of Mioveni’s total production and will also have a hybrid version. The plant produces 200,000 Duster cars per year.

“Work has already started in the center of Titu, the car is running on the tracks there. Test production will start in the coming weeks and the Duster will hit the market in the first half of 2024, but we hope it will be as early as possible,” Mihai Bordianu, Dacia’s regional manager in Romania, told HotNews.ro. Currently, Duster 3 is in the stage of “industrialization”.

Duster currently accounts for 65% of cars produced in Mioven, which means about 900 cars per day, but production is flexible and can be adapted if there is a need to produce 1,100 cars per day (if demand is high).

Among the preparations underway at the plant for the new Duster is an increase in the level of robotization in the body department from 44% to 52%. Other preparations will follow, so that in 2025 production of the Bigster, the largest model in Dacia’s history, will begin.

The Duster 3 will not have diesel versions, but it will have a hybrid option, being the second Dacia model after the Jogger with such an engine. The third hybrid in the Dacia line will be the Bigster.

Renault representatives said that Duster 3 will have better off-road capabilities and a more spacious interior. As with the Jogger and Duster, Dacia will insist that the car be used for outdoor activities (camping, cycling, skiing).

It is expected that there will be more changes in Duster 3 than in the recent “change of generations”, six years ago.

The Duster 3 will also share design cues (especially at the front) found in the Bigster concept, and like the production Bigster (launching in 2025), the Duster 3 will be built on the CMF-B platform used on the models. such as Renault Clio and Captur, as well as on the Nissan Juke. The current Duster is built on the old B0 platform used in the Logan “family”.

In almost 13 years, Dacia produced more than 2.3 million Duster cars, less than a tenth of them under the Renault logo.

Presented for its world premiere in March 2010 at the Geneva Motor Show, Duster was updated in 2013, and the second generation was released in 2017. At the end of 2021, a facelift entered the market.

In Europe, the Dacia Duster was the ninth best-selling new car model last year with 150,000 units, up 2% from 2021, according to JATO data. Sandero was second overall.

Duster’s best-ever sales year in Europe was 2018, the first full year since the launch of the second generation, with over 200,000 units.

Duster costs from 17,900 euros, but there are versions whose price exceeds 25,000 euros.

Last year, the Duster was the second best-selling model in Romania with 10,000 units, second only to the Logan.