The new upcoming Dacia Spring is due to go on sale here in the UK on 4th June, with prices from £14,995. This will make the Spring the cheapest new EV in the UK but also one of the top ten cheapest cars overall, regardless of powertrain. You could argue that the Citroen Ami could take the title of cheapest EV, but as that is technically classed as a two-seat quadricycle, it isn't a car unfortunately. The new Spring was debuted on 21st February earlier this year and was the topic of many discussions as to if and when Dacia would even bring it here. The previous version has sold in extremely large numbers in France and other countries in Europe, but even Dacia bosses were very keen to bring it to the UK.
What do we have?
So, what are we working with here? Well for starters don't expect record braking charging speeds, hundreds and hundreds of miles of range because that isn't what this car is about. Dacia is targeting this towards city use and as a second car for a lot of people. So you won't be surprised to read that the Spring has a 26.8kWh battery pack with 137 miles of range, or 186 miles of you exclusively drive it in the city. Charging speeds are limited to 7kW AC in the public or at home and can take four hours to get from 20% to 100%. However the DC fast charging is limited to the higher specced model.
There are two trim motors available, Electric 45 and Electric 65 - equipped with 44bhp and 64bhp respectively. The 0-60mph time is, on paper pretty measly at 19.1 seconds and 13.7 seconds respectively. But the Spring isn't meant for racing at the lights, the 0-30mph time is more important. The Spring also has two trim levels, Expression and Extreme.
The entry level Expression can be had with either of those motors mentioned, with £1,000 between them. As standard, you get a 7-inch drivers display, manual air-con, cruise control, speed limiting, smartphone holder, USB port for said smartphone and rear parking sensors.
Stepping up to the Extreme bumps the price up to £16,995 and only comes with the 65bhp motor. As standard, this one gets a 10-inch infotainment screen, with support for wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, two USB ports, electric mirrors, copper themed design inside and bi-directional V2L (vehicle-to-load), meaning you can power up external devices such as a coffee machine from the big battery in the car. An adaptor can be used to hook up a 220V/16A device.
Ordering
Up until 4th June, customers can put £99 to pre-order the Spring and this will put you at the front off the queue for UK deliveries. Those customers will also get £250 back to either put on accessories, public charging credit or some money to offset the price of a home charger. The first Spring examples are due to arrive in the UK this October.
Source: Dacia
