Renault CEO flags unprecedented crisis at Romania's Dacia plant

Renault Group chief executive François Provost visited Romania on 16 July 2026, touring the Dacia factory in Mioveni and the Technical Centre in Titu. He warned that the company's operations in the country are facing “one of the biggest challenges in its history”, citing an unprecedented crisis at the Mioveni plant, competition from production in Morocco, a deep European auto‑market slump, tighter pricing regulations and accelerating electrification.

Provost outlined three priorities for the Romanian operations: improve the competitiveness of the Mioveni plant to secure future volumes, accelerate the transformation of the RTR platform and launch a new Dacia Sandero family within two years, and revitalize commercial dynamics backed by strong auto‑policy support. The visit did not include meetings with government officials or the press.

The trip comes as Renault announced a global reduction of 15‑20 % of its engineering workforce over the next two years, a plan that will affect up to 2,400 jobs worldwide and includes roughly 200 engineers at the Romanian technical centre, who may receive voluntary exit packages of up to 210,000 lei.