New Dacia Spring has landed and could be UK’s first really cheap electric car

‘Cheap’ has been a term often thrown around for EVs costing as much as £30,000 – an amount we can all agree is far from affordable for most people. However, the new Dacia Spring has now arrived to disrupt the entire UK electric car market, with a starting price of potentially less than £16,000.

Full UK pricing and specs are due to be announced in March, however, the Dacia Spring has already been on sale in Europe for the last few years, starting from as little as £10,500 with European EV incentives. With this in mind, it could well soon become the UK's cheapest electric car.

The Dacia Spring model set to arrive in the UK has undergone significant revisions over the cars previously sold on the continent. While the old Spring could be described as somewhat unassuming, this new model gets a much chunkier SUV-style appearance with a revised front end design – pinched from the petrol-powered Dacia Duster – as well as a unique city map-like graphic on the bumpers.

The Dacia Spring also now gets squared-off wheel arches which, according to the manufacturer, can even be covered with special stickers in order to cheaply and quickly disguise any scuffs that may occur in the supermarket car park.

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On the inside, the new Dacia Spring looks almost entirely different to the one previously only available to European buyers. All models get a glossy seven-inch digital instrument cluster, while top-of-the-range Extreme models also get a 10-inch touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto – base ‘Expression’ cars get a smartphone holder instead, which is a neat solution also seen on the new £23k Citroen e-C3 to save on costs.

Aside from this, standard equipment is generous given how cheap we expect the Spring to be. Base Expression models still get things like air conditioning, 14 or 15-inch alloy wheels, rear parking sensors and cruise control. Step up to the Expression and you get the larger 15-inch alloys, power mirrors, electric rear windows and some extra USB-C ports for charging your devices.

Dacia has also taken care to improve many of the interior materials. The seats, for example, get a higher-grade fabric, while there’s now textured plastics and coloured accents scattered around the door panels and centre console to lighten things up, too. You can now also adjust the height of the steering wheel – something that’s once again been pinched from the top-selling Duster.

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Another feature of the Duster SUV that is now appearing on the Spring is Dacia’s unique ‘YouClip’ system. With three mounting points round the front half of the cabin, buyers can purchase a handful of accessories such as extra cup holders, a torch and even a bag that can be snapped into any of these spots.

Yet despite all this innovation, the new Dacia Spring still sits on the same underpinnings as its previously Europe-only predecessor. All models come with a rather small 26.8kWh battery which, despite its miserly capacity, still provides an electric range of up to 130 miles – ideal for those looking for a cheap-to-run second car, or for those that rarely venture too far out of town. 

Buyers have the choice of either 44bhp and 64bhp outputs – top-spec Expression trim is only available with the latter – and Dacia says the Spring can DC rapid charge at speeds of up to 30kW. While this may not sound all that fast, given the Dacia’s small battery, a 20-80% charge is still possible in around three quarters of an hour. It’ll only take four hours to charge at a 7.4kW home wallbox, too, and an impressive 11 hours via a traditional 3-pin plug.

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As mentioned, full Dacia Spring pricing is set to be announced on 12 March, however, we expect the car to start from as little as £16,000 – roughly £2,000 less than expected. Pre-order will begin at that time, while first UK deliveries are expected to arrive in the autumn.