New Dacia Spring costs from £14,995
March 12, 2024 by Tom Wiltshire
Car changing is a big deal
A sub-£15,000 price tag makes the new Dacia Spring the UK’s cheapest new EV – by quite a margin.
- New Dacia Spring priced from £14,995
- Around £10k cheaper than closest competitor
- Styling cues from the Duster SUV
- Two trim levels available for UK
- Smaller battery to reduce weight
- Up to 137 miles of range
- Orders open for £99 deposit
Spring has sprung, and brought with it the cheapest new electric car in the UK. Orders have opened up for the new Dacia Spring, and the dinky EV debuts with a price tag of just £14,995.
That makes it more than £10,000 cheaper than some of our favourite budget EVs, including the MG4 EV, Vauxhall Corsa Electric and BYD Dolphin. That price tag doesn’t just make it cheap among EVs, either – it’s more affordable than petrol city cars such as the Toyota Aygo X, or even Dacia’s own Sandero Stepway.
The Spring may have a modest range of just 137 miles, but it’s aimed squarely at city dwellers for use in the urban jungle, or as a second car for families who already have a larger combustion-engined vehicle.
How much is the new Dacia Spring?
The price tag is likely to be the new Dacia Spring’s biggest selling point. At £14,995, it makes the likes of the MG4 EV (£26,995) or Vauxhall Corsa Electric (£26,895) seem positively decadent.
While the Spring is still undercut by so-called heavy quadricycles (like the £8,495 Citroen Ami) it’s by far the cheapest ‘proper’ electric car on sale in the UK today.
The outgoing Spring has been on sale in France for a while now, where it starts from the equivalent of £15,700. UK sales begin with the newly facelifted model, which has styling cues inspired by the new Duster SUV and looks rather smarter than its price tag suggests.
However, there are many giveaways to the Spring’s bargain price – such as halogen headlights or the old-fashioned flappy door handles.
For a supposedly budget car, though, it comes with an impressive amount of equipment as standard. The entry-level trim for the UK is the Expression, which comes with a digital driver’s display, cruise control, remote central locking and electric windows, as well as air conditioning and alloy wheels.
It’s the range-topping Extreme version which stands out though. It comes in at just £16,995, but you get a 10.0-inch touchscreen with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, power mirrors and copper-coloured exterior trim.
New Dacia Spring design
The Dacia Spring sports a lot of the design cues you’ll have seen on the new Duster. It’s only a small city car, but it looks quite chunky and rugged considering its diminutive size.
Starting up front, you have a similar blunt grille design to the Duster with sleek LED daytime running lights blended neatly into a gloss black trim strip. There’s a funky-looking design on the lower air intake as well, and the charging port is neatly integrated into the Dacia logo.
Alloy wheels are a mere 15-inches in diameter, although they don’t look too small here. The black cladding around the wheel arches lends the car a tougher stance, and the tail lights have a funky look to them as well.
New Dacia Spring interior and infotainment
This may be a cheap car, but it doesn’t look too basic when you step inside. The flashes of copper and green lift the otherwise dark cabin nicely, and that screen atop the dashboard looks pretty modern as well.
You do have to go for the range-topping car to get this display, but if you do then it has wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. The 7.0-inch digital driver’s display is standard and is a nice touch as well.
It may be a cheap car but it still has to conform to the latest European safety regulations, which means it has autonomous emergency braking, traffic sign recognition with speed alert, rear park assist, lane-keeping assist and a driver attention monitor among others. Dacia’s typically resisted putting too much safety equipment on its cars, but brand loyalists who don’t gel with the latest tech will be pleased to see a ‘My Safety’ shortcut button giving easy access to turn these systems on or off.
The Spring has a 308-litre boot, bigger than the Corsa Electric and not too far behind the larger MG4 EV. You can also tick the options box to unlock 35 litres of ‘frunk’ space, though as standard this is left bare.
The Spring’s interior is compatible with Dacia’s new YouClip system, debuted on the new Duster. It allows you to flexibly mount things like cupholders, phone or tablet stands, or extra interior lighting – and third parties can even design and sell their own accessories.
New Dacia Spring batteries, range and performance
Two variants of the Spring are available. The entry-level ’45’ model uses a 45hp electric motor, which can hit a top speed of 78mph and takes 19.1 seconds to get from 0-62mph. The ’65’ model has, as the name suggests, a 65hp motor with much more sprightly performance – 0-62mph takes 13.7 seconds.
The Dacia Spring is very much aimed at those who drive in the city, and this is why it has a tiny 27kWh battery pack. This helps keep the cost down, as well as the weight, and it’s the latter which helps with this car’s efficiency.
All versions of the Spring have around 137 miles of range. That may not seem impressive on paper, but it’ll be more than enough for those who have short city commutes and it makes it the perfect second car for nipping around town. It’s also a few miles more than the Honda e can manage, and that car costs almost twice as much.
The results is highly impressive efficiency – on paper – of 5.1 miles per kWh. An MG4 EV manages around 3.8mi/kWh.
You can charge your Spring from 0-100% in just four hours from a 7kW AC home wall box thanks to the battery’s small capacity, and it can be topped up from 20-80% in 45 minutes with a DC fast charger.
Check out Mat’s review of the outgoing Spring…
Looking to make the switch to an electric car? See how much you can save on the latest EVs through Carwow, or tap the button below to sell your current car for a great price.