The Dacia Duster Is Getting More Horse Power

We absolutely love the new Dacia Duster. It charmed us when we tested it on its launch last year, and now that we’re living with one as a long-term test car, we’re finding that not only is that charm not wearing off, but it’s vastly better at just being a car than lots of more expensive stuff we test.

One of our only big grumbles with both examples we’ve been living with – a 4x4 and a Hybrid – is that its pace is sometimes a little leisurely, but it looks like that problem’s about to be solved.

That’s because, despite the car barely being a year old, a pair of new powertrains will be coming in later this year to replace both the existing mild and full hybrid setups. Currently, the former uses a 1.2-litre three-cylinder with a 48V motor, making for a total of 128bhp.

That’s being swapped out for a gutsier 138bhp version of the same setup, with a newer version of the engine, which will stay paired to the same six-speed manual gearbox as before. Our beloved 4x4 Duster also uses the mild-hybrid powertrain, but it’s not clear if this will be getting the new, more powerful setup along with the front-wheel drive version.

The outgoing Hybrid 140, meanwhile, uses a 1.6-litre four-cylinder engine paired with a 49bhp e-motor to send 138bhp to the front wheels. That’s being replaced with the Hybrid 155 system already found in the bigger Bigster, and developed by Renault-Geely powertrain joint venture Horse – same electric motor, but a bigger 1.8-litre engine with 108bhp to take peak power to 153bhp. It’ll continue to use the same funky gearbox arrangement with four ratios for the petrol engine and two for the e-motor.

No word on what these new options will do to the Duster’s performance, but they should unlock a little extra much-needed pace. They’ll also likely see the price bumped up a little – we’ll find out more on that in November, but this is still Dacia, so don’t go worrying that the new engines will add thousands to the asking price.

As well as the extra grunt, the Duster’s getting a couple of visual tweaks. The second-from-top Journey trim now gets its own exclusive upholstery, while the range-topping Extreme gets beefier 18-inch alloys. Nothing radical, then, but there didn’t need to be. Orders for the lightly tweaked Duster will open in November.