Dacia Manifesto Concept – Dacia’s Butch BUGGY flight of fancy

The Dacia Manifesto Concept arrives as an outdoor adventure buggy that’s ‘cool, robust and affordable’ according to Dacia.

We’ve got used, since Dacia decided to bring its bargain-basement Renaults to the UK, to value for money and no frills, with costs kept down by keeping fripperies to a minimum and tech from a generation before.

But now, as Dacia invents its future, it’s gone a whole lot further by delivering the Dacia Manifesto Concept, an outdoor adventure buggy, which arrives with no doors, no windows, no bumpers to speak of, a minimalist interior, little tech and a single headlight.

Dacia says the Manifesto “explores a connection to nature by being environmentally friendly, robust and by demonstrating usefulness in the outdoors”, and although it’s never going into production they claim some elements will.

The Manifesto allows a smartphone to be fully integrated into the dash (already a Dacia feature to cut costs) and there’s a YouClip to hold accessories (which is heading into production models). There’s also just a single headlight which detaches as a torch (not likely to make production).

The Manifesto comes with 4WD, high ride height, big wheels, is waterproof – inside and out – the seat coverings double as sleeping bags, there’s cork on the dashboard, recycled polypropylene material for the open wings and airless tyres.

David Durand, Dacia Design Director, said:

As well as being a designer object, Manifesto Concept encapsulates our vision and combines a wide range of innovation – some involve extreme implementation, but they are still affordable for customers. We will be using a few of them on future Dacia models.