Dacia Spring: not just cheap for an EV – cheap full stop

• Overhauled exterior and interior design
• Focus on simplicity and affordability
• Starts from just £14,995

Dacia’s mission has long been to offer great-value affordable cars, and up until now, those have comprised petrol, LPG, diesel and more recently hybrid offerings. Now, though, the new Dacia Spring EV has arrived, and it will cost from just £14,995 when it goes on sale in the UK. 

Not only is that cheap for an electric car, it will make it one of the cheapest small cars on sale in Britain. Dacia is now taking preorder deposits of £99, and those who take it up will also get a £250 allowance to spend on a range of extra accessories, charging allowance or money towards a wallbox charger.

To give you an idea of how cheap the Dacia Spring really is, its price means it even undercuts some of the UK’s cheapest petrol cars, such as the Hyundai i10 (£15,920) and it costs just a couple of hundred pounds more than the Fiat Panda, a car that’s fast approaching the end of its lifecycle. Based on price alone, that will make the Dacia Spring an undeniably compelling electric car for those after a cheap-to-own runabout.

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The Dacia Spring has been available in other parts of Europe since 2021, but never in right-hand drive form on our roads. That will change later this year, as UK buyers will be able to place an order for the new, facelifted Spring. It arrives with a revised exterior design and revamped interior, but the focus on ultra-affordability remains, and the Spring will be the UK’s cheapest electric car. Sure, the sub-£8,000 Citroen Ami might be cheaper, but that EV is technically a two-seater quadricycle, so can’t really be considered a fully-fledged rival.

We drove the outgoing European-spec Dacia Spring last year – you can read our in-depth review here.

What are the specs of the Dacia Spring?

In order to keep costs low, Dacia has fitted the Spring with a relatively puny 26.8kWh battery – for reference, that’s about half the size of the battery found in the MG4 hatchback. Thanks to its low weight, the Spring can still manage up to an official 143 miles of range, which should be plenty for around town. In fact, Dacia claims that current Spring drivers average only 23 miles per day.

A 20-80% recharge takes as little as 45 minutes at the Springs's maximum 30kW DC fast-charging speed, while the same charge at home will take under 11 hours, reduced to four hours if you have a 7kW wallbox. The Spring is also fitted with regenerative braking for the first time, helping to top up the battery during deceleration.

The battery powers a 44bhp electric motor as standard, badged Electric 45, while a 64bhp motor is optional, badged Electric 65, and costs £1,000 more. The lower-powered model will get from 0-62mph in 19.1 seconds, while the punchier motor cuts this sprint down to 13.7 seconds. Neither is exactly sportscar-rivalling, but we found the larger motor nippy enough for city driving during our review.

What does the Dacia Spring look like?

The facelifted Dacia Spring brings a totally revised exterior – only the roof panel is carried over – that follows the brand’s latest design language found on the all-new Duster. The new Y-shaped running lights are located in a full-width black band that sits above the main LED headlights. Most interesting are the funky black and white decals applied to the front and rear bumpers, providing some contrast to the six paint colour options.

Elsewhere, there are replaceable plastic panels on the lower doors to protect from car park dings, and the roof rails have been removed in an effort to reduce weight.

What about the interior?

The Spring’s interior appears to have been thoroughly overhauled from the outgoing model. The dashboard design is new and, while still simply arranged, Dacia claims that material quality is improved.

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The entry-level trim will be Expression, and comes with a seven-inch digital driver’s display, which replaces the analogue gauges of the outgoing pre-facelift car, manual air conditioning, cruise control, a smartphone holder, USB charging port and rear parking sensors. The range-topping Extreme trim is still affordable at £16,995, and gets a 10-inch infotainment screen with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, electric mirrors and rear windows, copper interior and exterior trim and a bi-directional charger that allows you to use the Spring’s battery to power electrical appliances. 

While Dacia may not have the best reputation for safety, the brand has made the Spring a little safer than before to meet the latest European standards. There’s autonomous emergency braking tech with vehicle, pedestrian, cyclist and motorcycle detection, a traffic-sign recognition system, lane keep and lane change assist, driver attention monitoring and an emergency call button.

Practicality remains high on the priority list, with Dacia’s range of clever storage cubbies, and a large 308-litre boot (1,004 litres with rear seats folded). There’s an optional 35-litre storage space under the bonnet, as well.

How much will the Dacia Spring cost and when can I order one?

Customers can now put down a £99 preorder deposit on the Dacia Spring in the UK for an expected delivery date of Autumn 2024. The car will start from £14,995 for Expression trim when it goes on sale, and Extreme models will cost £2,000 more. That price is even lower than the circa £18,000 we’d originally anticipated, and it’s set to become the cheapest EV on sale in the UK when it arrives.

Dacia is also treating buyers who put down a deposit to a £250 allowance for accessories, public charging or to put towards a Mobilize Power Solutions home wallbox charger.

Be sure to read our top 10 list of the best electric cars currently on sale…