Review: Dacia Spring EV (2024)

Like a list? Here's a good one for you. The cheapest car sold in the US right now is the Nissan Versa, which costs $16,680. For just $15 more you can have the Mitsubishi Mirage. This Dacia Spring, if it were sold in the US, would come in third at around $19,000.

Why mention the Dacia? Well, the Spring is not an internal-combustion auto, it's a fully electric car. Yep, a proper road-legal, five-door EV—not a micro-car like the Wueling Mini or Zhidou Rainbow—and one that is about to hit the UK market at a starting price of less than £15,000 new.

If the Spring were available in the US, it would be the cheapest American-sold EV by a country mile, besting the Nissan Leaf by more than $9,000.

Who is Dacia? Good question. Pronounced “Dah-chee-ah,” it is a Romanian automaker that is part of the Renault group and known for cheap and cheerful cars that offer surprisingly good value. What's more, its star has been on the rise for the last few years in Europe. As proof of this, I know of more than one professional car reviewer who has bought an all-wheel-drive Dacia Duster with—whisper it—their own money.

Now, thanks to an impressive new duo at the design helm, incoming Dacias have looks that belie their price point. Check out the new Duster, arriving in the UK in just a few months; or the possible seven-seat Bigster, landing next year to give the rest of the European SUV market a serious run for their money. The arrival of the all-electric Spring tantalizingly signals what's to come from Dacia. If it carries on like this, you could be looking at the kind of brand rebirth Hyundai and Kia have enjoyed.

Cute, Capable

The urban-focused Spring embodies the Dacia approach to car making: There are no excessive frills, just the toys you need; the power is sufficient, because no one needs supercar speeds between traffic lights; and the range is acceptable for multiple city trips, not interstate missions.

Courtesy of Dacia

This, of course, is how the Spring manages to cost so little and weigh less than a tonne (984 kilograms), which we should remind you would be applauded for any internal combustion car—but this is an EV. It should be more expensive, and it should have more heft, but it doesn't.

The weight saving also makes sense of the numbers, which at first glance look laughably small: From October, UK customers can plump for either a 44-bhp model or a 64-bhp one. The battery is just 26.8 kWh, but thanks to the lack of weight it's good for 140 miles of range on either model. You don't even need an EV wall box to charge this thing up, just plug it into a regular socket and it will be fully charged overnight (or under 11 hours).

If you do hook it up to a home 7-kW wall box, that fill-up will take around four hours, supposedly. The higher-powered Spring can manage 30 kW, and so with that “modest” battery you can go from 20 to 80 percent in an acceptable 45 minutes.

Speed demons should look elsewhere, mind you. Maximum speed is 78 mph (so it can just cope on freeways). On the 44-bhp model, standstill to 62 mph will take just over 19 seconds. The 64-bhp Spring manages 14 seconds. You will not have your head pinned back to the seat in this EV.

But that matters not one bit. It's just fine pulling away, nippy almost, at home in tight urban streets, and easy to move around. It’s very good over speed bumps and potholes, and the one-pedal driving works well. But faster corners and twisty roads result in some serious body roll. The steering is light, unsurprisingly, considering the weight of the car. Some will find it too light.

If you do leave the city, on country roads you will want a long run-up to overtake, as I found out on the Dacia brand-hosted drive, which on my first experience was more than a little unnerving. You'll swing out with what you consider to be a normal and achievable amount of clear space to make your move, then start to sweat as the Spring inches forward all too slowly while oncoming traffic worryingly grows larger and larger. You do get used to this, of course, after a good few hours behind the wheel. Whether you get used to the wind noise over 50 mph is another matter.

Interesting Inside

The exterior's winning aesthetic is continued in the cabin. It looks a lot better than any car at this price has any right to. Yes the materials are plasticky, and there's no little covers for the screws holding on the door handles—but, honestly, what did you expect?

I'll tell you what I didn't expect. I didn't expect vehicle-to-load capability, where you can run electrical appliances from the car battery. I didn't expect a rear windscreen wiper (something the Jaguar I-Pace hasn't got). I didn't expect a reversing camera resplendent on a 10-inch infotainment screen. I didn't expect electrically adjustable door mirrors, electric rear windows, and wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. But here they all are.

The interior of the Dacia Spring.

Courtesy of Dacia

So is automatic emergency braking, traffic-sign recognition, rear parking sensors, lane-keep assist, driver attention warning, and an emergency call system. There's even a dedicated button (yes, buttons are here for the important stuff) that lets you quickly choose your preferred safety systems settings—so just one push rids you of those bings and bongs.

The seats are uncomfortable on long drives, though, and leg room in the rear is, shall we say, not generous. The trunk can hold 308 liters, but fold the back seats down and that goes up to 1,004. As an option, you can add a 35-liter frunk, too.

Along with USB sockets in the front, you can see points Dacia has added for its YouClip accessories, such as a phone holder (handy because the onboard satnav is poor) and LED light. There's a clever add-on to make a glovebox, and an even cleverer central console between the front seats too. Making this stuff accessories keeps the cost down, of course, and Dacia says it wants to make YouClip open source, so other companies can come up with nifty ideas, which will then work across all its new cars. I hope they do this, as it's a cool idea.

The phone holder inside the Dacia Spring.

Photograph: Jeremy White

The central console in the Dacia Spring.

EV Efficacy

So efficient is the Spring that Dacia is claiming 4.6 miles per kWh, which is a very low consumption of power. And, pleasingly, it's great in real life too. I don't quite know how I managed it, but over my day of driving I got 5.3 mi/kWh. The lack of weight here helps enormously, of course—and this is the sorcery behind how the Spring manages 140 miles per charge on such a tiny battery. But, still, this is mighty impressive.

The safety on offer, not so much, however. The Spring has a one-star Euro NCAP rating, so don't expect it to fare too well in a crash. But despite the clear compromises, Dacia is betting big on the value on offer here, and it's likely right to.

The electric Spring has been available in wider Europe for a while, and it was the third-best-selling EV there in 2023. What's more, Dacia claims 93 percent of Spring customers are first-time EV buyers, and nearly 80 percent of these are new to Dacia. That's good business. And, as the Spring is made in China, Dacia has even factored in the coming European EV tariffs into its low pricing, saying the starting cost of £14,995 will not go up when the tariffs hit later this year.

In short, for most this is the perfect introduction to EVs. It easy to buy, easy to drive, and easy to like. It's an enjoyable car, and honest, too. And it's just about the best urban runabout you could hope for right now considering what you get for your money—which is a staggering amount.

Dacia isn't in the US, sadly. At least not right now. American manufacturers are likely hoping it stays that way.