Key Takeaways
- The Dacia Spring is an affordable electric car with a good range and low running costs, making it ideal for city driving.
- Despite its basic design and build quality, the Dacia Spring comes with satellite navigation, air conditioning and maneuverability.
- Available in two trims, the Dacia Spring starts from £14,995 and is a good-value city car that’s simple yet packed with enough technology.
Electric cars can be too expensive, but the Dacia Spring is set to change that. The compact city EV has been on sale in Europe for the past three years and is now coming to the UK. The Spring’s roots are in the Chinese market, and it’s manufactured there, but the Spring’s biggest selling point is its price: at £14,995 (just over $19,000), it’s cheap by any standards.
Now, I’m all for small, compact EVs. They make a lot more sense than electric SUVs, whose weight burden quickly makes them less appealing. The Dacia Spring is certainly compact, weighing less than a tonne, so it doesn’t have a big battery, and doesn’t really need one, since the car is designed mainly for short trips, not long drives.
That’s not to say the Dacia Spring has everything you need for long-distance driving. There’s satellite navigation available on the compact infotainment screen, air conditioning and plenty of comfort. The 26.8kWh battery pack also offers a range of 140 miles, and potential customers can choose between a 44bhp or 64bhp motor for longer journeys. On paper, the Dacia Spring looks like it has plenty of performance.
Recommendation
Dacia Spring
The Dacia Spring is a compact, all-electric city car that compromises on comfort a little. But for what it’s designed to do, the Spring is excellent: cheap, easy to drive, fuel-efficient and fun in tight spaces. It’s not great for long-distance travel, but it’s a city car, so that’s to be expected.
- Excellent maneuverability
- Decent specs considering the price
- Tolerance
- Steering becomes less precise on the highway
- Interestingly spongy suspension and slight body roll
- The cozy interior may be a bit too cramped for some
Pricing, Availability and Specifications
The Dacia Spring is available in two trim variants, the base Expression model has a 44bhp motor and starts at £14,995, the 64bhp Extreme variant is £16,995 and offers a bit more power and more refined trim options, while the mid-range Expression model is priced at £15,995.
Design and Build
Cute and compact
We expected the Dacia Spring to be compact and small, but in person it looks even smaller. At 3.7 metres long and 1.58 metres wide, it’s a car perfectly suited to city driving, with a body style that requires little attention to either end. In fact, Dacia’s designers consciously created a look and feel in the nose and tail sections that makes it seem like it would be no problem squeezing it into a tight parking space.
I like how Dacia has managed to incorporate style and fun into the Spring’s design. The car is a bit more sophisticated than the company’s previous, more modest models, and there are lots of nice little touches that give the Spring more personality. The Extreme Edition I’m driving has a flashy exterior color and flashy 15-inch wheels. I did notice, though, that the sound and feel of closing the doors is a bit weak.
I thought the Dacia Spring was compact and small, but in person it looks even smaller.
The boot also has a decent capacity of 308 litres, although we did have to forcefully close it to stop the “trunk open” warning from flashing after we set off. We like the way Dacia has placed the charging port behind the door in the front grille, which means that unlike some models that require careful parking to deliver the cable, this car has very easy access to the wall port or aftermarket charger.
Interior Details
Close fitting, yet comfortable for short trips
Make no mistake, the Dacia Spring is a cozy place to be inside. The seats are comfortable enough, with funky built-in headrests in the front seats. Headroom is adequate, but legroom in the back isn’t the best. It’s great for those with small children, but it might be hard to fit four adults comfortably.
I like the layout of the Spring’s dashboard because everything is easily reachable. The compact infotainment screen has satellite navigation, which worked fine during testing. There’s air conditioning and electric windows with control buttons on the centre console, which take some getting used to. Like most people, my natural thought process goes to the door panels, which, speaking of which, are very plain and basic and feel flimsy when you close the doors.
Make no mistake, the interior of the Dacia Spring is a cozy space.
There is a lot of wind noise when driving, but most of it seems to come from the doors and windows, but overall it feels pretty good and the interior is perfectly suited to the car’s requirements.
Technology Breakdown
The basic spec has everything you need
There’s not much to argue about when it comes to the technology inside the springs. The car only received a one-star European NCAP safety rating, but it meets EU safety regulations. Plus, the Dacia comes with all the basic driver assistance features you’d expect. Thankfully, you can easily silence any annoying warning sounds with a switch on the dash.
Add to that the 10-inch infotainment screen, which has decent resolution and all the usual features. The 7-inch digital instrument cluster gives useful efficiency information and is a joy to look at, although some reflective glare is noticeable in tough light conditions. Elsewhere, a USB port, rear parking sensors and cruise control add value. The remote central locking also operates with the same slightly agricultural rattle you get when driving a panel van.
Battery, range and performance
Subdued performance but solid range
What I really love about the Dacia Spring is its simplicity. EVs are already easy to drive, but this little car is even easier. Like most electric cars, this is mainly due to the Spring’s single-speed automatic transmission. Drive modes are selected with a small lever located between the front seats. Oddly, the car doesn’t have a “P” or Park position on the shifter, so when I wanted the car to stand still, I had to select Neutral and pull up on the old-fashioned physical parking brake lever.
Even more unconventional for an EV, the Dacia Spring has an actual ignition key rather than a start button, so the first time I drove it I had to insert the key, power everything up, and select drive with the shifter. I managed to get into the car, but when sharing with another driver it quickly became clear that space in the cockpit was a challenge for larger people. Adding to the problem, the driver’s seat position is not very versatile and only offers basic adjustments.
I had no trouble getting into the car, but when sharing a ride with another driver it quickly became clear that space in the cockpit was a challenge for larger people, plus the driver’s seat position is inflexible and only offers basic adjustments.
Dacia gave us a wide range of routes to drive the Spring on, from highways and side roads to narrow village streets with lots of navigating to do, including pedestrians crossing the road and haphazardly parked vehicles. The Spring excelled at weaving through tight spots, and the light steering was fantastic for weaving through delivery vans and distracted tourists. Another thing worth mentioning was the impressive turning radius, allowing the Spring to change direction almost instantly. There’s also a reversing camera, should you need it.
Where the springs aren’t as impressive is on the highway. For starters, it’s not a fast car, so it takes a while to get up to speed, and it doesn’t really feel like overtaking. And while the steering works well around town, it becomes less practical at speed and the steering feels a bit fluffy at times. Combined with the body roll when going around bends, junctions and roundabouts, the springs make long trips a little less fun and a little less unsettling.
But that 140-mile range seems pretty accurate from the time I spent with the car, and the higher-powered version comes with 30kW DC charging, which will get you from 20% to 80% in about 45 minutes, but the Spring is primarily aimed at people who want to charge by plugging it into a 7kWh domestic AC outlet, which takes about five hours. Not bad at all.
Should I buy the Dacia Spring?
The slightly more upmarket Extreme Edition Dacia Spring is priced at £16,995 (around $21,500) and still seems like a bargain. Spending a little more money and getting the little touches that make your journey a little more enjoyable is worth it. Sure, there are aspects of the car that can get a little boring on long journeys, like slow acceleration and body roll, but the Spring isn’t designed to drive cross country, it’s great for getting around towns and cities hassle-free. From that perspective, I think Dacia’s designers have nailed it.
Recommendation
