Dacia Spring EV review: Cheap and cheerful

Electric cars might be too expensive, but that’s about to change with the arrival of the Dacia Spring. It’s a compact city EV that’s been on sale in Europe for the last three years and is now coming to the UK. Its roots lie firmly in the Chinese market, where it’s also built, but the Spring’s main appeal is its price tag. It costs £14,995 (just over $19,000), which is cheap by anyone’s standards.

Now, I’m all for smaller, more compact EVs, which make so much more sense than electric SUVs that instantly have the burden of weight taking the edge off their appeal. The Dacia Spring is certainly compact and weighs less than a ton. As a result, it doesn’t have a big battery and doesn’t need one either really, because this is a car that’s primarily designed for short hops, rather than hefty road trips.

That’s not to say the Dacia Spring doesn’t have everything I need on a long haul. There is satellite navigation via a compact infotainment screen, there is air conditioning and there is also a reasonable level of comfort. The 26.8kWh battery pack offers 140 miles of range too, while potential customers will have the option of either a 44bhp or 64bhp motor to get them down the road. On paper then, the Dacia Spring looks like it’s got plenty going for it.

Recommended

Dacia Spring

The Dacia Spring is a compact, all-electric city car that comes with a few compromises on the comfort. However, for it’s intended purpose, the Spring is excellent. It’s cheap, easy to drive, frugal and fun in tight spaces too. It’s less great for longer trips, but given that this is a city car, that’s to be expected.

Pros

• Great maneuverability
• Decent specs, given the price tag
• Acceptable range

Cons

• Steering feels less precise on highway drives
• Amusingly spongy suspension and some body roll
• Cozy interior might be a little too small for some

Price, availability, and specs

The Dacia Spring comes in two trim variants, with the base Expression model starting from £14,995 with a 44bhp motor. A 64bhp Extreme variant, which costs £16,995, offers a little more power and more refined trim options. A middle ground Expression model comes in at £15,995.

Design and build

Cute and compact

I had expected the Dacia Spring to be compact and bijou, but it actually looks even smaller when you see it in the metal. At 3.7 meters long and just 1.58 meters wide, it’s perfectly suited to city use, with a body style that has little to fret about at each end. In fact, Dacia’s designers were mindful to make the nose and tail sections look and feel like they’d be perfectly comfortable being nudge-parked in tight parking spaces.

I like the way that Dacia still managed to add a sense of style and fun to the design of the Spring. This car is slightly more sophisticated than the company’s earlier, more spartan models, and there are a lot of neat little touches that give the Spring character. There are funky exterior colors too, along with the jazzy 15-inch wheels on the Extreme edition that I’ve been driving. One thing I did notice though was the slightly flimsy sound and feel when closing the doors.

The trunk too, which has a decent 308 liters of space, needed a hefty slam to stop the ‘boot open’ alert flashing up after I’d set off. I like the way Dacia has put the charging port behind a door on the front grille, which means that this car is very easy to get to a wallport or commercial charger, unlike some models that require careful parking to get the cable to reach.

The interior lowdown

Snug but comfortable for shorter journeys

Make no mistake, the interior of the Dacia Spring is a snug place to be. The seats are comfy enough, with funky head restraints built in to the front seats. Headroom is good too, though the rear seats aren’t the best when it comes to legroom. It’s perfect for people with small kids, though four adults might have trouble fitting inside comfortably.

I like the dashboard layout of the Spring, with everything falling easily to hand. Things are topped off with a compact infotainment screen that features satellite navigation that worked without issue when I tested it. There’s air-conditioning, along with electric windows with control buttons located in the center console. This way of operating them takes some getting used to; my natural thought process, like most people I imagine, takes me to the door panels. Speaking of which, these are quite bare and basic and do add to the flimsy feel when you close the door.

Wind noise is also noticeable when you’re on the go and most of it seems to come from the door and window areas. It’s all pretty good really though, and I think the interior fits the bill of this car perfectly.

The technology breakdown

Basic spec still has everything I need

There’s not a whole lot to discuss when it comes to the technology inside the Spring. Although the car only has a one star European NCAP safety rating, it does meet EU safety rules. Plus, Dacia provides all the rudimentary driver assistance features one expects. Thankfully, you can silence annoying alerts easily via a toggle on the dash.

On top of that, there’s the 10-inch infotainment screen that’s got a decent resolution panel and packs in all the usual functionality. A 7-inch digital instrument cluster gave me some handy info on efficiency, and it’s a good thing to look at, though it does suffer from some reflective glare in harsh light conditions. Elsewhere, USB ports, rear parking sensors and cruise control add value, as does the remote central locking, which operates with the same slightly agricultural clunk I get when driving panel vans.

Battery, range, and performance

Sedate performance but solid range

What I really like about the Dacia Spring is its simplicity. EVs are already straightforward to drive, but this little car is even easier to get on down the road. Like with most electric cars, this is mainly down to the Spring’s single-speed automatic transmission. You select the drive mode via a small lever between the front seats. Weirdly, this car doesn’t have a ‘P’ or park position for the shifter, so when I wanted it to stay stationary, I had to select Neutral and pull up the old-school physical parking brake lever.

Even more unconventional for an EV is the way the Dacia Spring has an actual ignition key, instead of a start button. So, for my first drive I had to insert the key to get everything powered up and then select drive using the shifter. I managed to fit into this car just fine, but sharing with another driver, it was easy to see that the room inside the cockpit could be a challenge for anyone on the larger side. This is compounded by a lack of versatility in the driver’s seat position, with only basic adjustments being possible.

Dacia gave me a great selection of routes on which to drive the Spring, ranging from highways and byways through to tight village streets with lots to navigate, including pedestrians crossing the road and randomly parked vehicles. The Spring excels at getting through those tight spots and I found the light steering brilliant for wending my way past delivery vans and distracted tourists. Another shout-out should go to the fantastic turning circle, which allowed me to pretty much turn the Spring on a dime. There’s a reversing camera if needed too.

Where the Spring is less impressive is on the highway. For a start, this is not a fast car, so getting up to speed takes time. It also didn’t make me feel like attempting any overtakes. And, where the steering works so well around town, it becomes less practical at speed and the wheel felt a little bit wooly in my hands at times. That, combined with some body roll through bends, junctions and roundabouts means the Spring provides a bit of fun as well as a little bit of uncertainty on longer trips.

That 140-mile range looks to be pretty accurate though, based on my time with the car and the higher-powered version comes with DC charging at 30kW. That would get me from 20 to 80 percent in around 45 minutes. The Spring though, is primarily targeted at folks who will be plugging it in at home on a domestic 7kWh AC supply, and that takes around five hours. Perfectly acceptable.

Should you buy the Dacia Spring?

In its slightly posher Extreme edition, the Dacia Spring still seems like good value at £16,995 (around $21,500) and I think it’s worth spending a little more to get a few extra touches that make the journey that little bit more enjoyable. Sure, there are aspects of this car that could get a little tedious on longer trips, like the slow acceleration and body roll. However, the Spring isn’t designed to cross countries and what it does brilliantly is get me around towns and cities without fuss or bother. On that basis, I think Dacia’s designers nailed the Spring.

Recommended

Dacia Spring