Dacia is the "marque de conquête," or brand of conquest, through which Renault enters emerging markets, said the French manufacturer’s chief executive Carlos Ghosn (in picture) at the opening of a new factory in Tangiers, Morocco on Thursday ( February 9 ), quoted by Mediafax newswire.

Dacia "is a brand of conquest that allows us to enter emerging markets and prepare the coming of the Renault brand, those that can't afford a Renault at first, buy a Dacia, and later, we hope, upgrade to a Renault,” said Carlos Ghosn.

Renault’s factory in Morocco will build low-cost cars. The new factory will produce the Dacia Lodgy minivan and a small delivery van. With a total investment of EUR 1billion in the Renault - Nissan production site in Tangier, Morocco, the factory’s production capacity is expected to reach 400,000 vehicles per year.

Romanian brand Dacia’s sales fell slightly by 1.8 percent in 2011, to around 343,000 cars sold worldwide, according to the company. The reported results were close to 2010′s 349,000 units sold. The Dacia Duster accounted for 47 percent of total sales.

The best sold Dacia model was the Duster SUV with 161,200 units sold, followed b they Logan, with over 95,000 units, and Sandero, with more than 86,000 cars sold.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com

(photo source: Daciagroup.com)