Renault Duster's Australian sales hampered by limited stock, says French brand

The Renault Duster has been on sale in Australia for more than a year, but it has barely made a dent in the local small SUV market segment – which Renault claims is due to supply limitations rather than low demand.

Renault's rugged rebadged Dacia has found 414 new homes in the first seven months of 2026, equating to fewer than 60 per month. That's a far cry from the sales figures of its most direct rival, the Suzuki Jimny, which notched up 4457 sales in the same period, and even the Subaru Crosstrek with 4821 sales.

But Renault Australia general manager Glen Sealey insists the Duster is "selling about right", and insists that supply from Europe is a greater concern than local interest in the model.

"You see one picture, but we also see the next picture of what we have available coming into the market, and we have not a lot of production on Duster coming through," he told media at the Australian launch of the Renault Symbioz.

"If I look at our arrivals between now and December, it’s less than 100 cars. So we don’t have a lot of cars coming through between now and the end of the year."

Australian-delivered Dusters are built by the Renault-owned Dacia brand in Mioveni, Romania. According to the brand's website, that plant produced 175,318 examples in 2025 and, per European reports, 168,182 Dusters were sold in the same year in Europe alone.

That leaves little leeway for the Duster in export markets like Australia. The Duster is also produced in Türkiye and, since 2026, India. However, vehicles produced in those countries are generally destined for sale in local regions.

As such, Mr Sealey stressed the need for Renault Australia to manage Duster stock carefully and plan ahead.

"That’s how we run the business. We have to ensure that we’ve got enough throughput to keep us going. We don’t get production in December, we don’t get production in June, we don’t get production in August," he said.

"There are three months alone that we don’t get production that we have to cater for, so we do have those ebbs and flows in terms of stock."

When asked whether Renault Australia's relatively low sales – 2709 units in the first seven months of 2026, dwarfed by Toyota's market-leading 115,550 sales – were due to issues securing stock, Mr Sealey said Australia remained a key consideration in the production of all of the brand's right-hand drive models.

"There is part of that for sure, but when we were here launching Master, we had representatives from Renault talking about whether Australia is an important market," he said.

"They were clear to say yes – they ranked Australia as the third-largest right-hand drive market for them. In that respect, if they’re going to do right-hand drive, we are a consideration in what’s going through."

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