The Spring is built, as is helpful for budget EVs, in China, on a platform originally created for India’s combustion-engined Renault Kwid.
It’s been on sale in left-hand-drive markets since 2021, but a mid-life facelift has allowed Dacia to make it in right-hand-drive form too after calculating that the profitability numbers stack up – or at least if they don’t quite stack up for the Spring alone, they will push the Renault Group’s EV sales into a zone where it can sell some more profitable ICE cars alongside it.
Unlike several other boxy EVs on sale today that market themselves as ‘small’, the Dacia Spring is genuinely dinky. Measuring 3701mm long, 1583mm wide and 1480mm high, it’s very similar in size to the Hyundai i10.
Perhaps more significant is the redesigned interior, which while not using terrifically plush-feeling materials does feature some interesting design touches, a 10in infotainment touchscreen and a 7in digital instrument cluster. There’s a new steering wheel that’s now height-adjustable.
Dynamically, there’s a revised power steering tune, but the spring and damper rates are unchanged.
White is only the no-cost paint colour (add £650 for one of the other five), while 64bhp cars have 15in alloys instead of 14s, and UK cars all get air conditioning, electric front windows, remote central locking, rear parking sensors, USB ports, a 12V socket and cruise control.
Extreme trim adds some copper-coloured finishing touches, electric mirrors and rear windows, sat-nav, smartphone integration and a bi-directional charger (which allows the car to power external devices).
