Renault launches Fluence, to replace Megane Sedan

Renault will launch in November in Romania the car called Fluence, available with a double motoring on gas and a double motoring on diesel, Mediafax informs. The new car will replace the Megane Sedan. According to the local representation of the French builder, the model Fluence will be manufactured in the factory Oyak from Bursa, Turkey, in the place of Megane Sedan, manufactured on the same line. Presently, the price of the new model has not been communicated. For Fluence, Renault has made investments of EUR 110 M. Almost half of the amount was used to manufacture the equipment for the supplier, and the remaining was invested in the plant. Besides Romania, the model Fluence will be launched also in November in Turkey and Russia.
 
The engine based on gasoline develops 110 HP from a propeller of 1.6 liters, while the other engine on gasoline available is of 2 liters and 140 HP. This propeller can be coupled to an automatic speed box. Both diesel engines are of 1.5 liters, but the first one develops 85 HP, and the second 105 HP. In 2011, Renault will launch a version 100 per cent electric of the model Fluence. The second generation of Megane Sedan was launched in Romania in September 2003, being traded in over 35,000 units so far. Fluence is the fifth model manufactured by Renault at the Oyak plant, operational since 1969.
 
Dacia sales reduces the sales of the expensive models
 
The volume of Renault sales was sustained in 2009 by the high demand in Europe for the low-cost Romanian brand Dacia. There is however also a negative side. Thus, the growing popularity of the cheap cars raises new problems for the French group, whose more expensive models remain without clients, according to The Wall Street Journal. "The analysts consider that the cheap Dacia cars, whose prices were reduced even more by the supportive packages from the Governments, have changed the expectations of the market in connection with the prices of the cars and have reduced the sales of the more expensive Renault models," The Wall Street Journal writes.
 
"The total Dacia sales rose 18 per cent in the first seven months against the same period of the past year, a more important advance than that of any other Renault model," the American publication recalls. Thus, the sales of the models Sandero and Logan in France rose 58 per cent in July, while the French car market rose only 3.1 per cent. Thus, Dacia became the eighth brand on this market according to sales, exceeding makers such as Fiat or even Nissan, the alliance partner of Renault.
 
In Germany, Dacia sales "exploded" by 346 per cent in the first seven months of this year, thanks to the governmental subsidies programme for the renewal of the car stock, more generous than that of the French Government, The Wall Street Journal also writes. "Renault sells much cheaper cars, from which it does not gain much money," HIS Global Insight analyst Paul Newton warns. Renault took over Dacia ten years ago, to take advantage of the growing demand from the emerging markets from Eastern Europe and South America. "We have a huge demand. There isn't any equivalent product on the market from this point of view," said Guillaume Josselin, marketing manager for France of Renault, referring to Sandero model.

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