Item: Dacia Spring
Rating: 4

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Ignoring the Dacia Spring is impossible if you’re hunting for a small electric car.

Its headline-grabbing starting price of £14,995 makes it comfortably the cheapest electric car on sale in the UK today, undercutting the Citroën ë-C3 by £6995 and the Fiat 500e by £10,000.

The arrival of the Spring expands Dacia's value offering to six models, ahead of the launch of the much larger Bigster next year. With its supermini proportions, the Spring is by far the smallest of the lot.

Given that it’s punily powered (44bhp) at that headline price and that moving up the model hierarchy is unlikely to prove prohibitive for most cash customers, it’s surprising to learn that many are ordering this new city car in its most basic form: at less than 15 grand, please, with 44bhp, and no matter that it takes 19.1sec to reach 62mph.

Of more interest to most customers, though is the more powerful Dacia Spring 65, which has a whopping 64bhp motor, pulling its acceleration from a 1965 Hillman Minx-equalling level to that of a 1992 Renault Clio 1.2 (13.7sec) in one fell swoop.

Dacia Spring range at a glance

The Dacia Spring is nice and simple. There are just two models to choose from - 45 and 65 - and two specification levels: Expression and Extreme.

The 26.8kWh battery is officially good for 140 miles between charges. Before you scoff, it’s a really usable range for city drivers. Dacia says most drivers average 23 miles a day at an average speed of 23mph, and it claims drivers could expect up to 180 miles per charge in those circumstances.

Version	Power
Spring 45	44bhp
Spring 65	64bhp

But how does the Dacia Spring actually drive, and are too many compromises made to reach that low entry price? Read on as we reveal all...

Verdict

Model tested:

Rating: 8

Dacia Spring

Dacia's Spring budget electric vehicle is compact, likeable and for an EV very, very affordable

Good

Lighter and more compact than other EVs

Good boot space and reasonable rear accommodation

Excellent value for money

Bad

A bit of wind noise

Lowish charge speed (though it's a small battery)

Driving position and seat lack adjustability

DESIGN & STYLING

Pros

Very compact

Reasonable equipment

Five stars from Green NCAP

Cons

Poor rear space

Value positioning lowers quality

One star from Euro NCAP

The Spring is built, as is helpful for budget EVs, in China, on a platform originally created for India’s combustion-engined Renault Kwid.

It's been on sale in left-hand-drive markets since 2021, but a mid-life facelift has allowed Dacia to make it in right-hand-drive form too after calculating that the profitability numbers stack up – or at least if they don’t quite stack up for the Spring alone, they will push the Renault Group’s EV sales into a zone where it can sell some more profitable ICE cars alongside it.

Unlike several other boxy EVs on sale today that market themselves as ‘small’, the Dacia Spring is genuinely dinky. Measuring 3701mm long, 1583mm wide and 1480mm high, it’s very similar in size to the Hyundai i10.

Perhaps more significant is the redesigned interior, which while not using terrifically plush-feeling materials does feature some interesting design touches, a 10in infotainment touchscreen and a 7in digital instrument cluster. There’s a new steering wheel that’s now height-adjustable.

Dynamically, there’s a revised power steering tune, but the spring and damper rates are unchanged.

White is only the no-cost paint colour (add £650 for one of the other five), while 64bhp cars have 15in alloys instead of 14s, and UK cars all get air conditioning, electric front windows, remote central locking, rear parking sensors, USB ports, a 12V socket and cruise control.

Extreme trim adds some copper-coloured finishing touches, electric mirrors and rear windows, sat-nav, smartphone integration and a bi-directional charger (which allows the car to power external devices).

Dacia says the Spring is the greenest electric car on sale, owing to the fact that as well as emitting no tailpipe gases, it’s a small car with a small frontal area and carries very few added kilos and extras where they’re not needed. Remarkably for an EV, it comes in at under a tonne. An organisation called Green NCAP gave it five stars.

The other NCAP, the one you will have heard of, feels differently about it, giving it a one-star safety rating that Dacia has reacted to with a shrug of its shoulders and a reminder that it meets all mandatory regulations and that buyers don’t care. The latest Spring still hasn't been tested under NCAP regulations, but it'll likely be a similarly low rating.

That said, it has been given lane keeping and speed limit assistance to comply with the EU's new General Safety Regulations, plus a button to easily switch them in and out.

The Spring’s motor and inverter sit under the bonnet, where there’s room for an optional cable storage box.

Both the 45 and 65 Springs come equipped with a 26.8kWh battery, positioned beneath the rear seats. It can charge on three-pin or 7kW AC power and up to 30kW on DC power. It gives a 140-mile official range with either motor, thanks to an energy consumption of 4.6mpkWh.

This kind of range is something that a combustion city car like the Kia Picanto would laugh at, of course, but Dacia is finding that buyers take four trips on average a day, measuring just 23 miles in total, and with 75% of them charging from home, it’s the very definition of a runabout.

Apparently, more than half of current buyers are rural and have a Spring as their only car. We suspect it will be more of an urban or second car in the UK, but Dacia insists an increasing number of buyers in Europe are starting to use the Spring as their primary method of transport.

INTERIOR

Pros

Decent-sized boot

Characterful

Lots of easy-to-reach buttons

Cons

Not the best quality

Rear legroom is poor

Seat height is non-adjustable

For a car so small – just 3.7m long, about 10cm longer than a Kia Picanto – the Spring has reasonable accommodation.

The front seats are set high and are non-adjustable for height. They're reasonably comfortable but not the most supportive. The Spring is very well packaged with reasonable space up front for both the driver and any front passengers.

Taller drivers might struggle for comfort (our 6ft 2in tester found his knee interfering with the window controls). If the driver is shorter than 6ft, there's just enough room behind for a passenger, but rear space is otherwise limited.

The interior quality is as you would expect in such a cheap car, but it’s a characterful environment. There’s a lot of hard plastic and a few rattles, but the infotainment system is intuitive enough. Buttons for the assistance systems and other key functions are easily accessible.

There's no infotainment system in the entry-level Spring, but the top-spec Extreme model gets a clear and intuitive 10.0in touchscreen. The Spring also get a 7.0in digital driver display that is customisable and displays all the information you'd likely need.

Boot space is good, though. It’s rated at 308 litres, one litre less than the larger Peugeot e-208, and the rear bench folds (but doesn’t split) to raise that to 1004 litres. There's also a Sring Cargo, which is the UK's cheapest 'van'. It's capable of carrying up to 382kg.

The Spring is a four- rather than five-seater, and with a body width of just 1.58m (a thumb's width narrower than a Picanto) and it's not the most spacious one at that. But if you like small cars, there’s lots to admire about its compactness and manoeuvrability; the turning radius is just 4.8m.

ENGINES & PERFORMANCE

Pros

Easy to drive smoothly

Plenty of power between 10- and 40mph

Ideal for city driving

Cons

44bhp model is the slowest car on the market

Struggles at higher speeds

No regen adjustability

Entry-level Springs come with a measly 44bhp electric motor, which will eventually propel the car from 0-62mph in 19.1sec.

We're still yet to drive this variant, It’s comfortably the slowest car on the market today and makes our range-topping, £16,995 Extreme model a more enticing proposition.

That’s equipped with a more powerful 64bhp motor with 81lb ft of torque, slashing its 0-62mph time to 13.7sec. It will go on to a top speed of 78mph.

The 64bhp Spring is sprightly off the line. It gets up to 50mph easily and is effective in traffic – as is the one-pedal regenerative B mode – but, of course, there’s not much urgency at higher speeds.

There's gentle throttle tip-in so it's easy to drive smoothly, and the brake pedal feel is pleasingly weighted and responsive.

Drivers can select between a gentle lift-off and a harsher regenerative mode: our preference was to coast more and, in our experience, that contributes to better efficiency too.

RIDE & HANDLING

Pros

Generally comfortable

Light handling

Well damped

Cons

Lots of bodyroll when pushed

Doesn't enjoy harder corners

Seats aren't the most supportive

We've only driven a 64bhp Spring with 15in wheels, but the springs and dampers give an acceptable amount of compliance to the ride.

It's sometimes bouncy but never crashes, and the suspension is by MacPherson struts at the front and a torsion beam at the rear. With such a low kerb weight, it’s not like the suspension needs to be stiff to keep body movements in check.

That said, ride comfort isn't always good, which is to be expected given the Spring relies on fairly basic hardware. Its raised stance helps navigate speed bumps, but potholes and larger cracks in the road can vibrate the unisolated cabin. Thankfully, the Spring’s comfortable, spongy seats soak up much of the impact.

The Spring's handling is very light and remote, but it takes full advantage of the model's 9.6m turning circle. It’s really not a car that enjoys high-speed cornering, exhibiting significant body lean when worked hard.

There is fun to be had wiggling in and out of traffic and around other cars though. It’s hard not to make a light car feel willing and agile, even if you do fit it with 165/55 R15 Linglong eco tyres, but dynamism and style aren’t ultimately really what Dacia is into.

And if you think it has a crossover-ish appearance, know that it’s 1519mm tall – only 34mm taller than the Picanto.

Even the Fiat 500e 70kW is barely a competitor: most owners are faced with choosing between a Dacia or a used car, not a new one.

MPG & RUNNING COSTS

Pros

It's the cheapest EV on sale

Efficient in the city

Attractive PCP pricing

Cons

Rivals aren't as cheap but offer more range

Efficiency will drop when you push it and use the aircon

Unimpressive max charging speed

There is nothing - yet - that comes close to the price of a Dacia Spring. Most customers will opt for the higher-spec Extreme model, which is still impressively priced. It's also available at a seriously enticing £169pcm on PCP.

All cars get the same 26.8kWh with an official range of 140 miles. Our tests, which included a 30-mile trip through city streets and some faster A-roads, returned an economy figure of 4.7mpkWh, equal to a range of around 125 miles.

A 12-mile run through packed London roads returned an impressive 7.1mpkWh, which in theory would translate to about 190 miles.

The Spring is capable of charging at speeds of up to 48kW, but Dacia expects three-quarters of customers to charge at home. With a 7kW home charger, it will get from 20% to 100% in four hours.

Either way, the Spring’s affordability is remarkable for a new car, as is Dacia’s way, to which nobody else has yet come close.

VERDICT

Verdict

Model tested:

Rating: 8

Dacia Spring

Dacia's Spring budget electric vehicle is compact, likeable and for an EV very, very affordable

Good

Lighter and more compact than other EVs

Good boot space and reasonable rear accommodation

Excellent value for money

Bad

A bit of wind noise

Lowish charge speed (though it's a small battery)

Driving position and seat lack adjustability

To heck with the one-star Euro NCAP rating, which Dacia says it’s happy to live with until 2027, and so what if it can’t go 200 miles on a tank of juice?

The Spring is a budget car with a compelling ‘matchy-matchy’ finance scheme.

That’s Dacia’s in-house term for an arrangement where your deposit on the car is the same as the ongoing monthly payments, and in the Spring’s case, it’s about £250. All for a new car with a three-year warranty, an eight-year battery warranty and no tailpipe emissions.

Above all else, the Spring is a charming car. It’s smartly styled, well equipped and reasonably practical, but it’s the price and its £169 per month PCP offering that will seal the deal.

For many, it the Dacia Spring will be all the car they ever need, and it will raise a smile or two as well.

TECHNICAL SPECS

Model tested:

Dacia Spring 65 Extreme

Price:

£16,994

Electric motor/s:

Permanent magnet synchronous motor

Drive battery:

Lithium ion, 26.8kWh (usable)

Driveline layout:

Front, transverse, front-wheel drive

Model tested

Dacia Spring 65 Extreme

Price

£16,994

Electric motor/s

Permanent magnet synchronous motor

View all specs and rivals

Drive battery

Lithium ion, 26.8kWh (usable)

Driveline layout

Front, transverse, front-wheel drive

Power

64bhp at 4057-6000rpm

Torque

83lb ft 500-4057rpm

0-62mph

13.7sec

Top speed

78mph

Kerb weight (DIN)

984kg

Battery size

26.8kWh

Energy efficiency

4.6mpkWh

Range

140 miles

Max. charge rate

7.4/30kW (AC/DC)

Rivals Fiat 500e Citroen e-C3

Power

64bhp at 4057-6000rpm

Torque

83lb ft 500-4057rpm

0-62mph

13.7sec

Top speed

78mph

Kerb weight (DIN)

984kg

Battery size

26.8kWh

Energy efficiency

4.6mpkWh

Range

140 miles

Max. charge rate

7.4/30kW (AC/DC)

Rivals Fiat 500e Citroen e-C3

Matt Prior

Title: Editor-at-large

Matt is Autocar’s lead features writer and presenter, is the main face of Autocar’s YouTube channel, presents the My Week In Cars podcast and has written his weekly column, Tester’s Notes, since 2013.

Matt is an automotive engineer who has been writing and talking about cars since 1997. He joined Autocar in 2005 as deputy road test editor, prior to which he was road test editor and world rally editor for Channel 4’s automotive website, 4Car.

Into all things engineering and automotive from any era, Matt is as comfortable regularly contributing to sibling titles Move Electric and Classic & Sports Car as he is writing for Autocar. He has a racing licence, and some malfunctioning classic cars and motorbikes.