Who Owns Dacia?

Dacia is owned by Renault, which bought the Romanian carmaker from the state in 1999 and turned it into the group’s budget brand. Renault itself has no controlling shareholder, though the French state holds around 15% — so a French government stake sits, at one remove, behind the cheapest cars on British forecourts. There is no Dacia company on the UK register. Ownership verified 6 September 2026.

Who owns the Dacia brand?

Dacia is Automobile Dacia SA, based at Mioveni in Romania, and is majority-owned by Renault Group. It is not an independent company and has not been since 1999.

In Britain the brand is handled by Renault’s UK operation rather than by a company of its own — the same arrangement as Škoda, Cupra and Audi elsewhere on this site, where a marque is run as a division rather than a separate legal entity. Searching Companies House for Dacia returns nothing belonging to the carmaker.

Parent company and ultimate owner

Renault Group is listed in Paris and has no controlling shareholder. Its notable holders are:

• The French state, at around 15% — a legacy of Renault’s history as a nationalised company, and a stake that has given governments real influence over its decisions
• Nissan, through the long-standing cross-shareholding between the two, substantially rebalanced in 2023

No single holder controls Renault, but a government holding a sixth of a carmaker is a materially different situation from a purely institutional register — and it has shaped decisions about plant closures and alliances that a private company might have taken differently.

Brand owner vs operating company

Automobile Dacia builds the cars at Mioveni, and the Mioveni plant is one of Romania’s largest industrial employers. Renault owns the brand, sets the strategy and supplies the engineering.

Dacia’s role in the group is specific and worth understanding: it uses proven Renault engineering rather than the newest, which is how the cars are sold so cheaply. Buying a Dacia is buying Renault mechanicals in simpler bodywork — the ownership relationship is the product strategy.

UK dealerships are franchises owned by independent motor retail groups, many selling Renault and Dacia side by side.

When the ownership changed

Dacia was founded in 1966 as a Romanian state enterprise, building Renault models under licence — the Dacia 1300 was a licensed Renault 12. So the relationship with Renault predates the ownership by three decades.

After the fall of communism the Romanian government sought a buyer, and Renault acquired a controlling stake in 1999, increasing it subsequently. The transformation came with the Logan in 2004, designed as a low-cost car for emerging markets and unexpectedly successful in western Europe.

Ownership has not changed since 1999. Dacia arrived in Britain in 2012 and has grown steadily, and the brand now sells more cars in some European markets than Renault itself.

Related brands in the same group

Renault Group owns Renault, Dacia, Alpine and Mobilize, and holds Lada historically through Avtovaz — an interest it exited in 2022 following the invasion of Ukraine.

Renault is also part of the Renault–Nissan–Mitsubishi Alliance, which is a cross-shareholding partnership rather than a merger: the companies own stakes in each other and remain separately listed and separately controlled. An alliance is not ownership, and the distinction became very visible during the disputes of recent years.

Dacia has no connection to Renault’s Formula One activities beyond the group, and none to any other budget marque — Kia and Hyundai are separately owned Korean companies, and MG belongs to SAIC of China, as this site’s other pages set out.

Sources and verification

The absence of any Dacia company on the UK register is from Companies House, as is the position of the marque within Renault’s British operation.

Everything above the UK is filed in France and Romania rather than here. Renault’s shareholder register, the French state’s holding and the Nissan cross-shareholding are disclosed to the Paris market and in Renault’s annual report; Automobile Dacia files in Romania. The percentages are reported figures at a stated date and have moved, particularly through the 2023 alliance rebalancing. Companies House does not verify most filed information.