Dacia is a subsidiary of Groupe Renault since 1999. The advent of the Logan in 2004 cemented the marriage between the French mothership and Romanian sidekick, but Dacia’s plant in Mioveni couldn’t handle the production capacity imposed by the rising demand. And this takes us to Renault Tanger, which operates an assembly plant in Tangier, Morocco.
Opened in 2012 to manufacture the Lodgy people carrier, the Tangier-based plant has produced its millionth vehicle five years after the assembly line became operational. And unsurprisingly, the 1,000,000th vehicle comes in the form of an Azurite Blue-painted Dacia Lodgy. In comparison to most Lodgys, this one is specified with a five-seat layout.
An economic tour de force for Morocco, the plant Groupe Renault operates in Tangier exports most of its production. Speaking of which, one out of two Dacia vehicles is produced in Morocco, not the automaker’s domestic market of Romania. But more impressively, the plant is designed to generate zero CO2 emissions and zero industrial effluent discharges.
100 percent of industrial wastewater is recycled with the help of a closed-loop treatment plant that handles approximately 900 cubic meters of water per day. Renewable energies serve the factory in a proportion of more than 90 percent, with biomass accounting as the main energy source.
Three eight-hour shifts per day is how Tangier operates, six days a week, all in order to support an annual production of approximately 340,000 vehicles. Since it went online in 2012, the Morrocan assembly plant manufactured 474,840 Sanderos, 320,078 Dokkers, and 193,181 Lodgys, cars exported to more than 73 destinations where Dacia and/or Renault are present.
In related news, brace yourselves for an all-new Duster by the end of the year. Next decade, on the other hand, will see Dacia break new ground by introducing an all-electric vehicle.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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