First Drive: Dacia’s Spring is a small and no-nonsense electric vehicle

What is it?

Reasonably expensive and reasonably heavy cars dominate the current electric vehicle market. Combining a buyer’s appetite for SUVs with battery-powered engine setups has been a popular blend for vehicle manufacturers lately and while they do provide a lot of plus-points for drivers, many of these cars come accompanied by high price tags as a result.

This car – the new Dacia Spring – takes a slightly different approach. Built in the mould of the traditional lightweight city car, the Spring arrives as the cheapest electric vehicle on sale today. Does this mean it’s a genuine alternative to more heavyweight rivals? We’ve been finding out.

What’s new?

A little more on that price tag. Starting from £14,995, the Spring undercuts every other EV currently on the market and does the same for a lot of combustion-engined vehicles, too. It measures in at 3,701mm – only slightly longer than Kia’s compact Picanto city car – while its 1,767mm mirrors-included width ensures that the Spring isn’t going to take up much room at all inside a standard UK parking space.

Inside, the Spring has been designed to keep to that budget, so you’re not going to find any quilted leathers or luxurious Alcantara. Instead, it’s all very simple, honest and robust – just as any city car is meant to be, in truth. Green NCAP awarded the Spring five stars for its reduced environmental impact, though this was contrasted somewhat by this Dacia’s one-star score in Euro NCAP’s safety tests.

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What’s under the bonnet?

The Spring is available with just two powertrain options. Entry-level models get a 44bhp electric motor, whereas more powerful Extreme versions – like our test car – see this increased to 64bhp. Performance, as you might expect, isn’t the sharpest; the lower-output version will achieve 0-60mph in a glacial 18.9 seconds, while the more powerful decreases this to a more acceptable 13.5 seconds.

All versions, however, get a 26.8kWh battery, which Dacia says is equipped to deliver up to 140 miles of combined driving range, or 190 miles if you’re only driving around the city. That’s the same regardless of which motor option you’ve gone for, too. Plug into a home wallbox and a full charge will take just shy of five hours, while a 20 to 80 per cent charge at the Spring’s maximum rate of 30kW can be sorted in 45 minutes.

What’s it like to drive?

The Dacia Spring really is refreshingly compact when you first see it in the metal. The doors open with a real lightness and, once inside, you’re met with a pretty straightforward setup. The stubby gear selector is a little unintuitive to use, however, and because it isn’t backlit can be hard to find at night. However, once you’re up and running the Spring settles into an easy-going, no-nonsense type of driving style. This more powerful version would be our choice as it can still get up to motorway speeds in a good enough time and though 70mph certainly isn’t the Spring’s ‘happy place’, it’ll still manage it in a decent fashion.

The ride quality is great, too, and the Spring shrugs off potholes and road imperfections far more assuredly than cars costing twice the price of this Dacia. Wind and road noise are both pronounced, but around town these issues aren’t as prevalent – crawling through urban traffic is where the Spring does, as you might expect, feel most at home.

How does it look?

The Spring presents itself as something different from everything else on the road today simply through its smaller proportions. Entry-level Expression-grade cars get a more ‘regular’ appearance, while Extreme-specification ones add to this with redesigned alloy wheel covers, additional styling elements dotted across the car and eye-catching graffiti-style elements at the rear.

You’ve got a good range of colours to choose from, too, though only ‘Polar White’ is a no-cost shade – the rest, such as ‘Khaki’, add an extra £650 to the Spring’s price tag. Just one wheel cover option on both specifications means there’s not too much to pick between in this area, however.

What’s it like inside?

As touched upon, the interior of the Spring isn’t overburdened with high-end finishers or particularly jazzy elements. The plastics feel thin but hard-wearing and though the seats aren’t overly padded, they’re more comfortable than you might expect. You’ve got some handy storage areas, too, with the clever shelf ahead of the passenger being a good spot to keep those easy-to-lose items. The driving position is quite high and upright, but those in the back do get a reasonable level of headroom as well.

The 308 litres of boot space that you get from the Spring is respectable, too, and the area itself is deep and reasonably easy to access. You can fold down the rear seats and increase this to 1,004 litres, too, transforming this compact car into one that is a little more practical than you’d expect.

What’s the spec like?

At its entry-level price, the Spring still gets a number of creature comforts including manual air conditioning, rear parking sensors and electric front windows – though the rear ones are manual. In Extreme trim, which bumps the price up to £16,995, this setup is upgraded to include a reversing camera, front and rear parking sensors and a 10.1-inch infotainment system. That final feature is quite transformative to the Spring experience and includes wireless Apple CarPlay – something which is omitted from many more expensive cars.

Naturally, opting for the higher-specification grade does bump up the Spring’s cost, but adds to the car’s overall usability. This inclusion of the infotainment system is handy but, if you were looking to keep costs down, you could always just use your smartphone instead.

Verdict

The Dacia Spring isn’t going to be right for everyone. Its compact proportions and limited high-speed assuredness mean that busy families or those who do big mileages aren’t going to find it an easy pick.

However, as an urban runabout, the Spring is ideal and provides a welcome tonic to the more heavyweight, expensive options that we’ve seen elsewhere in the EV market. The fact that Dacia has managed to deliver an electric vehicle that undercuts even its petrol-powered rivals should be applauded, too, and it’s a hope that this method continues on into the future.

• Model as tested: Dacia Spring
• Price: £17,645
• Engine: Electric motor
• Power: 64bhp
• Torque: 113Nm
• Max speed: 78mph
• 0-60mph: 13.5 seconds
• MPG: NA
• Emissions: 0g/km
• Range: 140 miles
• Maximum charging speed: 30kW