French carmaker Renault and its Dacia brand are launching a new basic 4x4 model next year, hoping to take advantage of growing demand in emerging markets.

Renault and Dacia will sell over 500,000 entry-level vehicles worldwide this year, despite an industry crisis that has ravaged some key markets for such vehicles, such as Russia, Gerard Detourbet, Renault's entry programme vice-president said on Tuesday.

Sales would be around the same level as 2008 or even "a little more than last year, despite the crisis", Detourbet said.

"Brazil has already taken off again, and I think Russia might take off again relatively quickly," he added.

Renault and Dacia sold 435,000 entry-level vehicles, which include Logan models as well as Sanderos, in the first 10 months of 2009, compared with 509,451 in 2008 as a whole.

Germany, with its generous scrapping incentive scheme, was the top market for the company's entry-level vehicles in the first 10 months of the year, Renault said, overtaking Romania which occupied the top spot in 2008.

Renault said it planned to launch its new Dacia Duster low-cost 4x4 model in Europe, Turkey and North America in spring 2010. "The Duster is not created for Europe, but for the world," Detourbet said.

The 4.3 metre long vehicle, based on the Logan platform, will be made first in Romania at its Pitesti site, then in Brazil from 2011 and in Russia from late 2011 or early 2012, with a maximum production capacity of 330,000 units. It will be available under the Renault and Dacia brands, depending on market.

It will be available in diesel and petrol versions.

Renault declined to give a sales forecast for the car, which it said would have off-road capabilities and which it hopes will meet the needs of drivers in emerging markets such as Brazil and Russia as well as in Europe, a mature region which is not the car's core target region, Detourbet said.

"The aim is to embed the Renault brand in a certain number of new territories," Detourbet said, adding that the group was targeting big volumes in new markets.

The group has faced difficulties with entry-level vehicle sales in India and Iran in recent months. In Iran, the group faced political problems," but sales would take off again, Detourbet said. "It's an absolutely fundamental market."     In India, a new law imposing a 15 percent tax on vehicles over 4 metres long stifled Logan sales.

But Detourbet was upbeat about the future of the range: "Low-cost is going to become a compulsory exercise for all carmakers," he said.

Entry-level sales made up 23 per cent of Renault and Dacia sales in the first 10 months of 2009, compared with 21 per cent of sales for the full year 2008. – Reuters