► It’s the new facelift Dacia Spring
► Astonishingly low price of £14,995
► CAR Magazine UK gives full verdict
Rejoice, Dacia is finally introducing its bargain EV to the UK. Yes, while our European friends have been able to get a Dacia Spring since 2021, it’s only now that Brits can finally get their hands on one.
It’s the answer to the ‘EVs are too expensive’ argument which has been blighting these cars from their inception. Starting from just £14,995, it’s now the cheapest electric car you can buy – and by some margin as it significantly undercuts the £21,995 that a Fiat 500e or new Citroen e-C3 will set you back. Not only that but it’s one of the cheapest new cars full stop.
Impressive. And this isn’t a Citroen Ami-sized quadricycle but a proper car with four seats and a decent enough range that you could leave the city, and at more than the Ami’s 28mph top speed. So, what’s the catch?
At a glance
Pros: Incredible value, outstanding efficiency, much nicer interior than you’d expect
Cons: Clear cost-cutting on show, body roll, you wouldn’t want to crash one…
What’s new?
Dacia has shifted more than 150,000 Springs since its introduction in 2021, and proudly claims that it’s the third best-selling EV to private buyers – all well and good but most electric cars are currently sold to companies. There have been numerous calls for the Spring to be introduced in Blighty since its debut, but only now an updated model is launching has the decision been made for the steering wheel to go on the other side.
The Spring can keep its low cost because it’s produced in China – and the firm says it can still keep the low pricing even with potential tariffs for Chinese-made EVs in Europe. The Spring is in fact a rebadged version of an electric Renault City ZE, a car that started out as the tiny Renault Kwid city car in India. It therefore has value in its roots – how very Dacia.
This is a facelift more than a new version of the Spring, but the only body panel carried over from the old car is the roof. Much of the design inside and out is also taken from the new Duster, including Dacia’s fancy new face and a large 10-inch touchscreen (on top-spec models). You also get some slightly tacky bumper stickers replicating a city map.
What are the specs?
What hasn’t changed about this facelifted Spring is what’s under the surface, with a choice of two versions. The entry-level model uses a motor producing just 44bhp, with some 1980-esque performance figures. What’s the 0-60mph? Well, you best not be in a rush as it will take up 19 seconds of your life to get there.
Surprisingly, this model is being offered in the UK, but just 10 per cent are expected to choose it. Instead, most will go for the 64bhp version we’re trying here. The performance figures only paint half the picture, as it feels faster than its claimed 13.5 second 0-60mph time, while it will max out at 78mph. No need to worry about the ‘10 per cent plus two rule’ on the M1.
Regardless of version, you get a 26.8kWh battery, and while that might sound a bit archaic in the day and age of SUVs with 100kWh batteries, the Spring’s dinky battery is a much better use of resources. The 140-mile range compromises its ability somewhat, but Dacia cites research that its current Spring customers travel just 23 miles a day. It’s therefore a car aimed squarely at the city or those who drive fairly locally.
We also averaged an impressive five miles per kilowatt on our route without especially trying, meaning in warm conditions at least, that claimed figure should be quite achievable, and probably isn’t too far off a Peugeot e-208 with the smaller battery in day-to-day conditions.
DC rapid charging is only provided with the more powerful motor, and even then the max 30kW speed isn’t great – a lot of the best plug-in hybrids can charge quicker these days. This isn’t an EV designed for longer distances but a 20 to 80 per cent charge can take 45 minutes. Given the small battery, you could quite easily get away with using a three-pin plug overnight too.
What’s it like to drive?
Jump in and there are immediate signs of cost-cutting. Not surprising, admittedly. I can’t remember the last time I drove a modern car without a height-adjustable seat and only as part of this facelift can you now adjust the steering wheel – but rake only.
The 64bhp motor is so much nippier than the on-paper figures would lead you to believe, with the initial pick-up from a standstill pleasantly brisk, and you don’t need to worry about waiting for a Roman road to overtake, just choose your gap a bit.
In a lot of ways the driving experience feels off the pace, but always comes with the caveat that it’s at least £6,000 cheaper than its next-best rival. You feel most bumps in the road – the budget clearly couldn’t stretch to decent damping – with lots of jostling over speed bumps and the steering is hilariously slow and light. Brilliant around town and when parking – the turning circle is excellent – but once at speed it’s a bit unnerving until you start getting used to it.
The diddy 15-inch wheels are also shod on ‘Linglong Eco Master’ tyres, I kid you not. They’ve got every bit as little grip as you’d expect. Push the Spring into a corner and a combination of hilarious body roll and minimal grip leaves the tyres squirming and car tilting at quite an angle. It’s worse from the passenger seat, I assure you. But great fun in the driving seat. It’s got that Spanish hire car feel where you feel you can rag it at ten-tenths wherever you go.
Worth remembering the weight, too, as the Spring tips the scales at less than a tonne – for an EV, regardless of size, that’s seriously impressive.
Just don’t push the Spring’s abilities, or lack thereof, too far as it wouldn’t be the first car I’d want to crash. The 2021 model scored a disappointing one-star Euro NCAP rating, and despite now being fitted with more driver assistance tech (essentially a box-ticking exercise more than anything else), Dacia won’t be taking its Spring to NCAP until at least 2027. In the press conference, it said the Spring is no less safe than a 2012 Renault Clio. Perhaps not something to brag about…
What about the interior?
The Spring’s best feature is its interior, with stand-out ergonomics. All models get a new digital instrument cluster, real buttons for the climate control (remember those?) and a general ease of use that’s long been forgotten by many car makers. Base versions, we say base, Dacia doesn’t sell the really bare-bones trim in the UK on account that nobody would buy it, don’t get a touchscreen but radio and Bluetooth controlled through buttons on the steering wheel.
We’d skip this and go straight to the top-spec Extreme version, which brings a large 10-inch touchscreen out of the Duster. For the price, it works brilliantly, with basic connected services included (though we found the in-built nav hopeless) along with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto included.
Seats aside you won’t find any soft-touch materials, but lots of interesting colours, shapes and simplicity come together to form an interior easily befitting of a car costing more than it does. There are various cost-cutting oddities – electric rear windows that you can’t control in the front being a particular oddity.
The Spring sits in the smallest A-segment class of car – and at just 3.7m in length, is similar to a Kia Picanto, for example. It’s pretty narrow too, so if you’ve got two bigger people upfront it soon fills up the cabin, and rear space isn’t massive. You’ll need a front seat quite far forward if you want an adult to squeeze into the rear, but again this is a small car so it’s to be expected. At 308 litres, though, the boot is as big as many superminis, though the rear seats fold as a bench rather than the more typical split-fold. Storage is plentiful with a glovebox not dissimilar to entering Narnia, but likely won’t translate over to right-hand-drive, such is the typical quirk.
Before you buy
Price is central to Dacia’s appeal and not least the Spring. That £14,995 starting price is impressive, but it’s £15,995 for the more powerful motor you’ll need and £16,995 for the top-spec trim you’ll want.
Standard equipment is far from sparse, though, with air conditioning, a digital instrument cluster, cruise control and rear parking sensors all included on the entry-level Expression trim. That extra £1,000 for the Extreme trim seems worth it, though, with its more stylish cooper-coloured trim, electric door mirrors and a 10-inch touchscreen with smartphone mirroring and a reversing camera. You’ll need the top-spec trim for quicker DC rapid charging too.
As we’ve mentioned, the Spring is considerably cheaper than the next EVs, with even the cheapest Citroen e-C3 coming in at £21,995. That is, however, a much more substantial package both in terms of driving manners and interior space. It’s worth getting the calculator out to see the real-world difference on the monthlies, as Dacia often isn’t quite as competitive on finance as others.
It’s interesting to learn that Dacia, with no real competitors yet in this class minus the Fiat 500e, also benchmarked the Spring next to used cars, citing a one-year-old Nissan Leaf and Renault Zoe. With steep used car depreciation, generally speaking, it’s worth cross-shopping with used cars – a one-year-old Peugeot e-208 for £15k seems a more enticing choice with fewer drawbacks.
Verdict: Dacia Spring
Dacia has led the way with its value for money with the Sandero, Duster and Jogger and it’s now doing the same with electric cars with the Spring. How it’s making a new usable EV for this price would have been scarcely believable in the UK a couple of years ago. We can only hope it spurs other manufacturers to ensure EVs aren’t restricted to the richer in society going electric just to write the tax off. Electric cars can and should be for all, and Dacia is the first to really demonstrate that, and with a much smaller environmental footprint doing so.
The Spring’s impressive interior and generous equipment defy its price, but it’s a slight shame the same can’t be said for the overarching driving manners and safety. Dacia is adamant corners have not been cut on the latter, but with its general tinniness, budget tyres and seemingly nonexistent driver assists, I’m not quite sure. You can buy a Sandero without feeling like you’re making compromises. I don’t think the same can be said about a Spring.