The pollution norms to enter in force as of September and the coming into force of the new Worldwide Harmonized Light-Duty Vehicle Test Procedure (WLTP) force the local car manufacturer to stop the sales of Duster equipped with the Efficient Dual Clutch (EDC) automatic gearbox, capital.ro informs.
Dacia representatives have confirmed Tuesday night that “as of September 2018, Dacia will comply with the new WLTP homologation protocol and the commercial offer will be adapted to the new global procedure. For now, Duster EDC versions are not to be sold under this new regulation.”
Therefore, Dacia Duster buyers with automatic gearboxes either buy the model by September or expect a new technical solution through which Dacia and Renault engineers will be able to form the EDC engine-gearbox assembly so as not to exceed the permitted emission limits.
Besides the exclusion of the EDC automatic box from Dacia’s portfolio, the French-Romanian pair Renault-Dacia will have to change its commercial offer by removing the 1.5 dCi engine from the offer, which will be replaced by the so-called 1.5 Blue dCi and the Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) technology to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions.