Dacia has pledged to stick with simple and easy-to-use car controls, with the brand’s chief executive Denis Le Vot saying that while a certain level of tech will be needed to attract new customers to the brand, large numbers of buyers aren’t keen on cars dominated by touchscreens. 

“There are 420 million people in Europe, and not everyone is tech savvy,” said Le Vot, speaking at the unveiling of the brand’s new Bigster mid-sized SUV at the Paris Motor Show. “Look at the Bigster, it’s all mechanical; we call it piano in French, with the buttons to adjust things – it's not menu number one, sub-menu number three.

“Nothing against brands that would offer this, but my only point is that there is a percentage of the population which is not interested, and that percentage is growing.”

Le Vot said reducing the complex technology helps keep Dacia’s position as a value brand. “If you look at the price of the C-SUV five years back, it was below 30,000 Euros, and if you take the figures today it’s above 35,000, so when that same person comes to renew their car, they’re going to hit this wall,” he said. 

“They may like technology, but that’s not the point – you bought a car five years ago for 28,500 and now you come to the same dealership and ask for the new one, with lots of screens, lots of tech, lots of everything for say 36,000 Euros. Come on, 29,000 to 36,000 in five years, who's got a salary moving in that direction?” 

According to Dacia’s boss, its approach is bringing in customers from more expensive brands who are then choosing top-spec Duster models, for example. 

“We were selling 300,000 cars seven years ago, and that’s half of what we do today,” he claimed. “These people are still super loyal, 70 per cent of them re-buy a Dacia and 15 per cent buy a Renault, which is great, but if it was only loyalty, we would be selling 300,000 cars. 

“What's happening is that people are coming from upstairs, and giving up the cars that are too expensive. When these people arrive in the showroom, they say: ‘At that price, I’ll take the highest trim’; 80% of Duster orders are on the highest trim.”