Dacia Striker Crossover Arrives With Prices Starting Under £25,000

Dacia has confirmed its newest model, a C-segment crossover called Striker that combines an SUV’s ride height with an estate’s boot space and a saloon’s fuel economy. Prices will start from under £25,000, positioning it as one of the cheapest ways into the segment currently occupied by cars like the Nissan Qashqai and Volkswagen T-Roc.

Striker sits alongside Bigster in Dacia’s range rather than replacing it, part of the brand’s stated plan to grow its share of C-segment sales from 20 percent to 33 percent by 2030. The name signals intent: David Durand, Dacia’s design director, called it “a new and complementary response to current automotive expectations, based on a different balance to that of conventional SUVs.”

Two Hybrid Powertrains, No Petrol-Only Option

Every Striker sold will carry some form of electrification. The entry powertrain, badged Hybrid 155, pairs a 109hp 1.8-litre four-cylinder petrol engine with two electric motors and a small 1.4kWh battery, running through a clutchless automatic gearbox with four ratios for the engine and two for electric-only driving. Dacia says the car can run in electric mode for up to 80 percent of city driving and always starts in electric mode, with CO2 emissions under 100g/km.

A second option, Hybrid 150 4×4, adds four-wheel drive through an unusual layout: a 1.2-litre 48V mild-hybrid engine driving the front wheels through a six-speed dual-clutch gearbox, with a separate electric motor powering the rear axle independently. The rear motor disengages when four-wheel drive isn’t needed, giving the efficiency of a front-wheel-drive car most of the time with the traction of all-wheel drive when conditions demand it. Combined output reaches 150hp, with the system offering five driving modes including dedicated settings for snow and loose ground.

Built for Families, Priced Like a Value Brand

At 4.62 metres long, Striker is close in size to a C-segment estate, but stands 1.53 metres tall, noticeably lower than most SUVs in the class. Boot space reaches 600 litres, among the largest in its segment, with a three-part floor system that lets owners divide the load area or fold it flat for maximum volume. A hands-free tailgate function, standard on the higher Journey trim, opens automatically when it detects the key card nearby.

Four trim levels cover the range: Essential, Expression, Extreme and Journey. Extreme leans toward outdoor use with a panoramic roof, hill descent control and washable synthetic upholstery, while Journey adds comfort features including heated front seats, a power-adjustable driver’s seat and a wireless phone charger. Every version gets automatic emergency braking, lane keeping assist and rear parking sensors as standard, meeting the latest European GSR2 safety requirements without pushing them into optional packages.

Where Striker Sits Against the Competition

Dacia’s pitch has always been the same: comparable space and capability to mainstream rivals at a noticeably lower price. Striker follows that formula against cars like the Qashqai, T-Roc and Kia Sportage, all of which start well above £30,000 once a hybrid powertrain is specified. A sub-£25,000 starting price for Striker undercuts most of that competition by a significant margin, even before accounting for Dacia’s traditionally strong residual values in the UK.

The brand has sold more than 260,000 cars in Britain after launching in January 2013, built largely on value models like Sandero and Duster rather than anything positioned as aspirational. Striker doesn’t change that formula. It applies it to a segment where buyers have historically had to pay considerably more for the same combination of space, ride height and running costs.

UK specification, full pricing by trim and on-sale timing have not yet been confirmed, with Dacia expected to release further details closer to the car’s market launch.

A Cabin Built Around Storage, Not Screens

Dacia has skipped the trend toward oversized touchscreens that dominate much of the segment. Every Striker gets a 10.1-inch central screen and a 7-inch LightVisio digital instrument cluster as standard, both smaller than the displays fitted to rivals like the Qashqai, with physical controls kept for the functions drivers use most often behind the wheel. The centre console includes a 6.7-litre storage compartment under the armrest, and the brand’s YouClip anchor points, up to nine of them around the cabin, let owners attach accessories such as a water bottle holder or a removable cup holder wherever suits them.

Storage extends into the boot as well. A three-part floor system, standard on Extreme and Journey trims, lets owners split the load area into sections or fold it flat for maximum capacity, with each panel reversible between carpet on one side and a wipeable surface on the other. Dacia has also built in a cable run between the front passenger’s storage area and the centre console, keeping charging cables out of sight, along with an ice scraper tucked into the dashboard.

Materials With an Eye on Running Costs

Striker contains 47kg of recycled plastics, a record for Dacia and more than the 43.6kg used in Bigster, part of a broader push that puts more than 32 percent of the car’s materials from circular sources. Starkle, the unpainted, part-recycled material Dacia uses on exterior body protection, now extends into the cabin for the first time, appearing on the door panels and dashboard. None of this is purely about sustainability messaging: unpainted exterior panels are simpler and cheaper to repair after minor scrapes, a detail that feeds directly into the low running costs Dacia is chasing with Striker.

The approach carries through to accessories. Floor mats for the Extreme trim use 50 percent recycled rubber, and a roof box developed alongside the car adds 480 litres of extra capacity for family trips without needing a separate roof rack purchase.