The Dacia Spring gets a new battery and improved suspension – does it now have the edge over a Leapmotor T03?

The Dacia Spring is the UK’s cheapest new electric car. Yes, I know the Citroen Ami is less expensive, but that’s not technically a car – it’s a quadricycle.

For just £15,000, the Spring offers a solid interior, low running costs and a surprising amount of kit, but the driving experience leaves a lot to be desired, as does the range and charging speed.

Well, Dacia has listened to feedback, and it’s made some key changes to the Spring which should make it more usable. Starting with the suspension.

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Dacia Spring updates: suspension

The Dacia Spring is fine around town, but as soon as you venture outside of the urban jungle it sort of falls apart. Not literally, but head into a corner carrying any sort of speed and there is an alarming amount of bodyroll, and the cheap eco tyres don’t have much grip either. It’s pretty unnerving.

To make it feel a bit less roly-poly, Dacia has now fitted an anti-roll bar for the. This is pretty standard on more expensive EVs, and it stiffens up the chassis to combat lean in the bends.

The electric power steering settings have also been tweaked to make it more responsive, and the brakes are more powerful as well.

Finally, there’s a new battery pack which is mounted more centrally in the car. That improves the weight distribution and just helps the car feel more balanced. We’ll get behind the wheel of the updated Spring soon to see how effective these changes are.

Dacia Spring updates: Motors and battery

In addition to the improved suspension, the Spring has also been given some more power. The 45hp and 65hp motor options have been ditched, and in their place you have 70hp and 100hp versions.

The latter should be much better for motorway driving, an area where the current car feels a bit out of its depth. Go for the 100hp version and it’ll go from 50 to 75mph in 6.9 seconds, whereas that would take a whopping 14.0 seconds in the old 65hp model. Much better for zipping out of road works or overtaking on faster-moving roads.

These new motors work in conjunction with a new 24kWh battery, and despite the added power the Spring can still do 140 miles on a charge. That might not seem overly impressive compared to other, more expensive EVs, but it should be plenty for most people’s daily commutes.

Finally, there’s the matter of charging. The old Spring could only charge at 30kW on a DC fast charger, which meant topping up from 20-80% took a leisurely 45 minutes. The top-spec version of the new model gets 40kW fast charging, which drops this to 29 minutes.

That’s still not that fast by modern standards, but keep in mind that the Spring is unlikely to be used on long journeys where you’ll need to use public fast chargers regularly. It’s better-suited to daily commuting with a charger at home.

When can I buy the updated Dacia Spring?

It’ll go on sale before the end of 2025, and Dacia says’ it’ll cost the same as the current car. These changes should increase the Spring’s appeal massively, and make it a much more tempting alternative to the Leapmotor T03.

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