INTERVIEW The head of Dacia about possible new layoffs in Romania and about the sharp drop in production. “Absolutely everything is on the table.” When an announcement is expected

Dacia is having a difficult year. Production is down nearly 20%, there have been layoffs, and sales are down. Are there more layoffs to come?

• “They are measures taken with a good purpose, because you cannot stay with an unbalanced budget”, Mihai Bordeanu, general manager of Automobile Dacia, said about the budgetary measures in an interview for HotNews.
• But he claims that, at the same time, the effects can be seen in the purchasing power of the Dacia public.
• Bordeanu does not rule out new layoffs and offers, in the interview, a deadline for an announcement.
• It is an announcement expected by the entire market and a signal announcement for the economy as a whole.

The reduction or increase in Dacia Renault production has consequences that spread to many other companies in Romania. Dacia is in second place in terms of size in the economy, surpassed only by OMV Petrom. And it has 10,000 employees.

HotNews: Mr. Bordeanu, the data of the Association of Automobile Manufacturers, where you are also president, show that production at the factory in Mioveni decreased by 20% in the first four months compared to last year. And in April the decrease was 30% compared to 2025.
Mihai Bordeanu: Somehow, the planets aligned. We're talking about the geopolitical context, we're talking about developments in international markets that were working very well and now they've gone down, and that obviously has an impact on volume. The impact on the Romanian market is not negligible, especially since Romania is in the top 5 markets for the Dacia brand.

The month when the Dacia director says they will make an announcement

– Were there other markets in Western Europe where Dacia fell a lot?
– They are not spectacular. Our market is the most important, with negative double digits -13% overall and -23% on retail, and everyone knows that retail is our playing field.

– You applied that discount with 1,200 people of the number of employees at the beginning of the year. Are there more restructurings to come this year?
– We don't have a word to say here for now. We will see how things will evolve further and how many exchanges will be needed… If the Rabla program will not be at all… For me, the program only starts when the first application is approved, not when declarations are made. For Dacia customers, the program is very important, I look at customers to see what they want to buy and what they can afford to buy.

– So I understand that no other job cuts are scheduled, but it is not excluded that they will occur?
– Absolutely everything is on the table, but we cannot pronounce now. We cannot have a position on May 25th. We'll see how things develop. We will definitely come up with something concrete before the holidays in July.

“Hopefully the next 7-8 months will look different”

– Did the decrease in purchasing power also matter?
– Of course, the purchasing power has decreased. We know that the VAT has increased, the exchange rate has also fluctuated and induced an imbalance here. I don't think we can put our finger on a single factor, there are several that, cumulatively, led to a double-digit drop in the first four months on the Romanian market. Hopefully the next 7-8 months will look different.

– What is the main factor that led to the decrease in sales in Romania?
– We have to start from the customer, and these measures that have been taken in Romania – including the increase in taxes – have reached a certain segment of the population, and it happens that precisely that segment of the population are Dacia customers.

We do not dispute them, they are measures taken with a good purpose, because you cannot stay with an unbalanced budget. Some brands suffered less, others more. We address that part of the population that is affected.

What does the man who is CEO of Dacia say about the Rabla program

– As CEO, do you assess that Dacia has declined on the Romanian market due to the delay of Rabla?
– Not only that, but it also decreased because of Rabla.

– Say in the conference that it is important that the Rabla program starts as soon as possible. In the version proposed now, the Dacia Spring model is no longer included, because it is produced in China. How big is the loss in estimated units?
– Of course it is a loss, you saw in the figures of the past years that there were thousands of Spring cars. If that's the rule, that's it. I'd like, starting with me and all of us in the industry, to spend less time questioning rules and more time building.

If a rule has been made, we respect it, after which we move on and think about how to develop the products, how to produce more, how to sell more. That's where the energy has to be put.

Production will decrease in 2026. Further layoffs cannot be ruled out

– How much will production from Mioveni decrease in 2026? After four months, it is 20,000 cars below last year.
– I can't give predictions, but it will surely be under 300,000 cars.

– It was under 300,000 last year as well….
– We expect production to be slightly lower than last year. It is difficult to make a projection now, when there are still a lot of uncertainties…when Rabla starts, how it starts, what happens.

“Any factor of instability matters to us”

– For Dacia, how serious is the political crisis in the country, how is the company influenced by everything that is happening?
– Any factor of instability matters to us because unfortunately something can only be delayed. If things are not politically stable we may have delays.

– When you say delays, what do you mean?
– Well, including the Rabla program. Let's suppose that tomorrow a new government is installed and maybe it has a different opinion… It's possible, I'm not saying it will be like that.

– In this whole landscape, the fact that Turkey was chosen for the construction also mattered striker,the newest Dacia model?
– The choice was made a long time ago and it was not an emotional one. Nobody has anything to do with Romania. It's a story about numbers. The world is looking at the numbers and others have been more favorable.

Dacia figures

Last month, the Mioveni plant produced 18,300 cars, compared to 26,500 in April last year.

In four months (January – April), Dacia production was 83,000 vehicles, down from the 102,000 cars produced in the first four months of 2025.

How has Dacia production evolved at Mioveni in the last five years (number of cars):

• 2025: 297,182
• 2024: 309,432
• 2023: 322,086
• 2022: 314,228
• 2021: 257,405

At the EU level, Dacia car registrations fell by 15% in the first four months of this year, the total being 157,000 vehicles. The market share is 4.2%, compared to 5.1% a year ago.

Almost 7,000 Dacia cars were registered in Romania in the first four months, ACAROM figures show.