Background
Dacia, the Renault Group value-brand relaunched across Europe and the Mediterranean in 2004, deployed Dacia AR as a consumer-facing augmented-reality application that lets prospective buyers and dealership staff visualise the full Dacia model range on smartphones and tablets. The app first launched in June 2022 alongside Dacia's new visual identity and has been progressively extended to cover every current model.
The experience
Dacia AR renders a 1:1-scale 3D vehicle into the user's own physical environment — a garage, driveway, street, or other real-world space — viewed through the phone or tablet camera. Users can walk around the car, view the interior, change exterior colour, apply accessory configurations, and zoom in on detailing. A two-tap shortcut then links from the app to the Dacia manufacturer website for pricing and online purchase. A Boot Organizer function introduced in a later release lets users evaluate and plan loading of the boot against their own use case.
The April 2026 update adds the exterior of the new Striker model in the Journey trim, with its full colour palette available exclusively inside the app ahead of wider order-book opening. The current in-app range spans Spring, Sandero, Sandero Stepway, Logan, Jogger, Duster, Bigster, and Striker.
Technology
The app was built by SCALE-1 PORTAL, a French immersive-experience technology start-up, under a controlled-budget mandate that Dacia explicitly credits as part of its operating model. It is distributed free on the Apple App Store and Google Play (the iOS build requires iOS 15 or later) and runs on consumer smartphone and tablet hardware with no additional peripherals.
Commercial footprint
Orderable-vehicle content is supported in 17 markets: Germany, Austria, Belgium, Spain, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Morocco, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Czech Republic, Romania, United Kingdom, Slovakia, Switzerland, and Turkey. Since the 2022 launch the app has been installed and used by more than 260,000 people across 181 countries, indicating reach well beyond the commercial territories.
Dealer channel use
Dacia positions the app as a supplementary selling tool for its dealership network, particularly useful when a specific model or trim is not physically in the showroom. Sales staff can walk a customer around a configured vehicle on a tablet inside the dealership, complementing the physical stock on display.
Recognition
Dacia AR won the GOLD award in the "Innovative Retailer" category at the 9th edition of the Connected Commerce Night in 2022 — a French retail-technology awards programme judged by a panel of 30 CEOs from major French retail brands alongside public voting. The jury cited the app's rapid deployment and budget discipline.
