New Dacia Spring 2024 review: cheap EV has plenty of appeal

Verdict

The affordable electric car market is moving at a rate of knots – to the point where the Dacia Spring, keenly priced though it is, is not quite the truly outstanding bargain it would have been 18 months ago. However, decent on-road manners, excellent manoeuvrability and low running costs should still give the baby Dacia strong appeal, particularly for those after a cheap runabout or a second car. It might actually be more of a catalyst for change in the city-car market, given that it costs the same as many similarly sized rivals while offering the benefits of zero-emissions motoring.

Dacia is a car company that does things differently, with a razor-sharp focus on ‘the essentials’, a stern resistance to unnecessary frippery and a staunch dedication to value for money. And now, at last, UK customers can experience those principles being applied to an electric car, in the shape of the new Dacia Spring.

On sale already, with first deliveries to British customers expected from October, the Spring is a typical bit of Dacia opportunism. The company created the car in the first place by taking an emerging-market model (the Renault Kwid, in case you’re curious) and piggybacking a Chinese manufacturing base’s efforts to turn it into an affordable EV.

The resulting keen pricing overcame reservations that many European customers might have had about range, kit and quality, because since the car was launched in 2021, Dacia has shifted over 150,000 examples; last year, in fact, the Spring was the third best-selling EV in Europe, if you look purely at retail sales and ignore big fleet deals.

The company’s UK division has been lobbying to get the Spring in right-hand drive for three or four years, as it turns out, but the re-engineering involved meant that it hasn’t made sense until now, when it can coincide with a major facelift.

At its core, the Spring benefits hugely from Dacia’s alternative approach to making cars in general. It has enough power; it has enough range; it has enough performance; it has enough toys. And nothing else. As a result, this city car-sized creation comes in at less than a tonne and costs from just under £15k – remarkable feats for any car these days, frankly, let alone a pure-electric one.

With that modest kerb weight to haul around, the motor and battery specs begin to look realistic, even though they’re undeniably modest. UK customers have a choice of either a 44bhp model or a 64bhp version. The battery, regardless of which power output you go for, is a 26.8kWh lithium iron phosphate (LFP) pack that’s good for 140 miles of range.

Dacia believes that many Spring customers will slow charge the Spring at home once a week, so a rapid connection has not been a priority. All versions get a 7kW AC hook-up that can totally refill the battery from empty in just under five hours, when connected to a suitable domestic wallbox. Alternatively, a regular three-pin connection will take just under 11 hours. The higher-powered version does get a DC connection as standard; it runs at 30kW, so you’d hardly call it rapid, but again, that modest battery capacity means that it can still get from 20 to 80 per cent in a respectable 45 minutes.

The new Spring certainly looks a more funky, chunky creation than the old generation. It’s 3.7 metres long, so a teeny bit larger than a Hyundai i10, but 15-inch wheels (new, and restricted to the Extreme edition that we’re trying here) and some neat use of graze-friendly plastic on the bumpers and wheelarch extensions, give it a slightly rugged appearance.

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Two trim levels are being offered to UK customers. The more basic version, called Expression, makes do with a mobile-phone mount instead of a proper infotainment screen but still gets a seven-inch digital instrument panel, air conditioning, remote-control central locking, electric front windows, a speed limiter and cruise control.

Extreme, meanwhile, features copper trim flourishes, electric rear windows and side mirrors, a 10-inch touchscreen with wireless Android and Apple integration, and vehicle-to-grid functionality that allows you to power external devices from the car’s battery. As a guide, Dacia says that six hours of running a string of LED lights will use five per cent of the capacity, while an hour of powering an electric grill will cost you 13 per cent.

We weren’t exactly blown away by the original Spring when we tried a left-hand-drive example on UK roads last year – but the good news is that the facelift has addressed many of the issues we highlighted back then. In particular, the interior finish is much improved; it’s still not what you’d call plush, but there are smarter materials in all of the key areas (including those copper accents) and clever textures where it might risk looking cheap. It all just feels a bit more mature, a bit more ‘designed’ than it did before. 

The tech is a major upgrade too, since the digital dash looks smart and the infotainment system has all of the functionality you could reasonably need, including the ability to schedule charging and preconditioning, either on the display itself or via Dacia’s smartphone app. There are also more driver-assistance features than before, too – though Dacia admits it doesn’t expect them to change the car’s one-star Euro NCAP rating, arguing that it’s safer in a crash than many of the second-hand superminis it’s likely to be compared with. Helpfully, you can define how much of the electronic driver assist interference you’re willing to swallow, then access this setting via a double press of a dashboard button.

The actual process of moving away from rest is a curious mix of old and new. There’s a conventional key in a steering-column barrel – no fancy start/stop button here – and a regular handbrake, but a simple gear toggle switch between the front seats for you to flick between Drive, Neutral and Reverse.

The first thing you’re likely to notice as you get going is the throttle modulation, because it’s nicely judged. There’s none of the instant chirp that you get from strained front tyres on many small EVs, and that’s a doubly impressive feat on the Spring’s Chinese-market LingLong Eco Master rubber. Instead the car pulls away smoothly – and strongly enough, particularly up to 30mph or so. Any early punch does tail off as the speeds rise, but we can at least attest to the fact that the quoted maximum speed of 78mph is achievable, in case your commute includes a stretch of motorway. Reaching it just requires a bit of patience.

At the other end of the dynamic spectrum, the car does also have a B mode that allows you to increase the amount of brake-energy recuperation when you lift off the throttle, and it works well enough. The step-off is perhaps a teeny bit aggressive but it’s relatively easy to acclimatise and use it around town, where it offers scope for single-pedal driving. And when  you need to use the left-hand pedal, it manages the transition from regen to discs and drums (yes, really) effectively.

Dacia says it has adjusted the steering column (not least to allow height adjustment) and the wheel itself compared with the old Spring, and sure enough, there’s a better feel to how this version steers. It’s still pretty light and can feel a little distant from what’s going on at the front wheels at times, but it’s a decent setting for a car that’s really designed for town use.

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The ride quality has improved too – perhaps due to the extra bit of sidewall in the 15-inch rubber. At lower speeds, the Spring is generally compliant enough to absorb the worst dips and scars on those suburban roads – where, let’s face it, many examples will spend the majority of their time. Throwing the car at faster corners results in pronounced body roll – perhaps a little more than you’d experienced in an i10 or Kia’s excellent Picanto – but it’s all safe and predictable, since the front end will eventually just wash out into understeer.

The metallic twang that you hear when you close the Spring’s doors won’t fill you with confidence about its cruising refinement but in fact, its biggest issue beyond 50mph is some wind noise from around the side mirrors and the A-pillars. And motor whine is surprisingly well contained; it’s there, but you’d have to be summoning up every ounce of the Spring’s performance for it to get truly annoying.

Beyond the front seats, the cabin has decent headroom for four six-feet-tall adults, but those in the second row may well complain about leg and kneeroom. At least the seat backs themselves are quite soft (as are the squidgy bolsters), so it’s not too much of a chore to tuck your knees into the material.

The boot measures 308 litres, which is a match for plenty of modern superminis – although it’s worth remembering that there’s no usable space beneath the floor, so if you don’t buy the ‘frunk’ storage box (a £125 accessory), you’ll end up throwing items on top of your charging cables. The boot is pretty much a barely lined box, too, with not even a single hook. It’s a shame, in fact, that Dacia hasn’t seen fit to install one of its YouClip modular mounting points in the boot (there are three in the cabin), given the potential for innovative storage solutions to be offered as accessories.

Still, that capacity means that if you’re willing to hoik items over the hefty lip, there’s enough space for a decent supermarket shop. The rear bench seat folds down to extend the capacity to 1,004 litres, although it doesn’t leave a particularly flat floor. 

It is impossible, of course, to take a considered view on the Spring without rolling the pricing into the equation – because the numbers are pretty staggering. That headline starting figure of £14,995 is impressive enough, with a walk-up of £1,000 to the same spec with the 64bhp motor, then the same premium again to get to the range-topping Extreme that we’ve driven here. 

However, sensible residual values (helped, no doubt, by a warranty that can last up to seven years, assuming you get your car serviced at a main dealer) have allowed Dacia to go aggressive on the monthlies. Put down just over £2,300 and you can have a base-spec model for £169 per month – but arguably more appealing is the idea of getting the car on your driveway for a single month’s deposit, based on rates of £217 (Expression), £235 (Expression 65) or £246 (Extreme). 

A premium of £11 per month seems reasonable for the extra kit that Extreme brings, including that infotainment system – though it’s worth remembering that other brands, notably Citroen and BYD, are pushing vehicles that don’t cost all that much more, while being larger and blessed with longer range.