Spring is how it's called, and sales are scheduled to start in the first half of 2021.
Dacia, the low-cost automaker owned by Renault since 1999, has promised more than 200 kilometers of range or 124 miles under WLTP. The Tesla Model 3 in entry-level specification is good for 402 kilometers (250 miles), but pricing favors the newcomer if you include the plug-in incentives of European governments.
Previewed in March 2020 by a concept, the Dacia Spring Electric is 3.73 meters long (12.2 feet) from bumper to bumper. That's marginally longer than the smart forfour but a tad smaller than the Volkswagen Polo, making the e-crossover perfect for daily driving in the urban jungle where parking spots are often hard to find.
"The electric car accessible to all" is said to embody "the new Dacia revolution," whatever that may mean. Looking at the bigger picture, an electric crossover such as the Spring can be considered a revolution because the ridiculously low price point will attract many new customers to the brand, including fleet operators.
Don't, however, think that the Spring is an original design. Renault is likely to have developed this model for Dacia with the help of the City K-ZE from China. Manufactured in the Hubei province since 2019, the crossover relies on a 26.8-kWh battery pack and a front-mounted electric motor with 44 horsepower on tap.
You can expect similar specifications for the European variant but the exterior design should differ slightly because of the different badge and safety legislation. The newcomer may be pretty Spartan as far as standard features are concerned as well, all in the name of affordability.
Rumored to start at anything between 15,000 to 20,000 euros, the e-crossover is eligible for a 10,000-euro grant from the Romanian government for plug-in vehicles. In other words, not even the Renault Zoe subcompact hatchback would be capable of competing with the Spring on price alone.
