Four new Dacia EVs to unlock the budget brand’s electric potential
A new small EV to be followed by the electrification of Dacia’s Sandero best-seller, and probably the Hipster city car
Dacia has confirmed it will launch four pure electric cars by 2030, as it seeks to deliver zero emission-motoring on a budget.
First up is Dacia’s version of Renault’s Twingo, a baby SUV set for a debut in the second half of 2026. But the headline news is that Dacia’s heartland Sandero supermini will go electric too.
“For the next generation Sandero, we have designed a range of multi-energy powertrains, in a typically attractive Dacia design,” said Dacia CEO Katrin Adt. “It will remain a value-for-money champion.”
The supermini is going hybrid for the first time this year, but the all-new version – set for unveiling in 2027 – will have a fully electric variant too, as Dacia strives for two-thirds of its volume to be electrified by 2030.
All Dacias – except for its sole current EV, the Chinese-built Spring – are built on the group’s low cost CMF-B architecture. The big question is whether Dacia will electrify this components set, or base the Sandero EV on the Renault 5’s AmpR Small platform.
The two architectures share about 70 per cent of parts, but Dacia may be loath to introduce additional complexity by having two Sandero designs with subtly different proportions due to their different powertrains.
Small SUV to replace the Spring
That said, the electric Dacia beating it to market is the small SUV based on the most compact version of the AmpR Small platform, from the new Twingo. The sub-4m-long five-door, likely powered by the same 27kWh battery to boost economies of scale, will cost from €18,000. Expect a range around 150-miles, with sales beginning in the second half of 2026.
Dacia claims it engineered this Spring replacement in a remarkable 16 months, turbocharged by the fact it uses an existing platform and was jointly created in China and Europe, with the twin time zones allowing development around the clock. While it will initially be sold alongside the existing Spring, the Chinese-sourced car faces extra European import duties that its European-built successor avoids.
Super-small production version of Hipster
Another Dacia EV is likely to be the production version of the Hipster concept car, a short-range urban EV that manages to cram four seats into a 3m-long package thanks to its tall, boxy stature. Its compact size would meet the proposed criteria for the European Commission’s ‘M1E’ affordable electric vehicle class, with manufacturers who build them qualifying for super-credits towards their emissions obligations.
“We feel there is a need in the market for a very, very affordable EV car,” said Ms Adt. “We have continued to work on [the Hipster]. We have all the assets in house to do it. However, we still need to pay attention also to the development of the markets, but also of the regulations, and we're waiting a little bit for that to push the button.”
Firming up the regulation is expected to take all of 2026, so the proposed 100km EV (62 miles) would struggle to make production much before 2030.
The final EV could be a larger Dacia, with the value brand increasingly pushing into the midsize C-segment with the Bigster SUV and forthcoming Striker crossover estate.
“The mission is to have an EV offer in each segment,” Ms Adt said. But it’ll take some clever engineering to square the circle of a bigger car requiring a larger, costlier battery: the boss is determined for the brand’s EVs to remain affordable and offer good all-round capability, given Dacias are often the only car in a household.
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