Never sold in the United Kingdom until now, the cutesy Dacia Spring is advertised by Dacia's British division as being an all-new model. Truth be told, it's actually the second facelift of an electric vehicle with underpinnings from a crossover that was originally intended for the Indian market.
Renault Kwid is what the Indian crossover is called, whereas the battery-electric sibling launched in China as the Renault City K-ZE. Derived from the latter, the Spring rolled out in October 2020 for the 2021 model year. Emphasis on derived because Renault and Chinese partner Dongfeng had to re-engineer the vehicle for the European market.
Dacia launched a minor facelift in June 2022, prompted by the Romanian brand's new logo. The second facelift is a bit more substantial. Unleashed in February 2024, said facelift is the one coming to the United Kingdom in right-hand drive.
All-new? Yeah, right! Criticism aside, there's a good case to be made for this A-segment hatchback on stilts. Easy to park and easy to maneuver in the urban jungle, the Spring is very affordable. Pricing starts at £14,995 in the United Kingdom, which is approximately $19,100 at current exchange rates. In the Romanian brand's domestic market, prices kick off at €16,900 or approximately $18,310 for a less generously equipped trim dubbed Essential.
Over the English Channel, the entry-level specification is the Expression. The order books will open June 4, but in the meantime, customers can pre-order the Spring by placing a small deposit (only 99 pounds sterling) on Dacia's website.
Photo: Dacia
Those who pre-order the Spring are presented with a choice between three complimentary perks, beginning with £250 of charging credit with a charge pass from Mobilize Power Solutions. Alternatively, customers are presented with £250 towards accessories or £250 towards the cost of a home charger.
Based on the low starting price and the origins of the Spring, it should come as no surprise that driving range, charging speeds, and straight-line performance are somewhat disappointing compared to the likes of the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and the Tesla Model Y. The WLTP range, for example, is estimated at 137 miles (220 kilometers) in the mixed cycle or 186 miles (300 kilometers) in the urban cycle. Charging from 20 to 100 percent takes four hours or so when using a 7-kW charger.
The UK gets a grand total of three grades: Expression Electric 45, Expression Electric 65, and Extreme Electric 65. Care to guess what 45 and 65 stand for? Those would be metric horsepower, meaning 44 and 64 mechanical ponies. Said versions sprint to 60 miles per hour (97 kilometers) in around 19 and 14 seconds.
There's no denying the Spring is lacking in many respects, but remember that Spring doesn't compete against the Ioniq 5 and Model Y. From the outset, French automaker Renault envisioned the Dacia Spring as being an urban-centric EV. The Spring targets the kind of customers who understand that Spring was developed specifically for daily driving to work and back home. Of course, you can also use it during the weekends for the shopping run to ALDI, thanks to a relatively spacious trunk and rear seats that can be folded for extra cargo volume.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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