The New Dacia Spring Redefines “Cheap” Electric Cars

[@MrVasilicus]

Yeah, because the Romanian Government reduced the Rabla subvention for electrical cars at 5100 euros, Dacia reduced the price for Spring at 15000 euros. So, we could buy it at a bit less than 10k euros. Pretty bargain, if you can charge it at home, at a cost of 0.80 lei/kwh (0.135 GBP), if you have contract with the Hidroelectrica supplier. I can't wait for it to appear in the showrooms, to go and test it. My sister has recently got her driver license, so she wants to buy a electric new car for the city huge traffic jam. Enjoy! 😊

[@trevorberridge6079]

The best home charging prices in the UK are 5p per kwh. That's less than £1.50 to fill the 28kwh battery for 137 miles of range. That works out as 1.1p per mile.

[@efiu12]

So she wants to add another car to the 'city huge traffic jam'. Cool :)

[@J-_-S]

@@efiu12 yeah, why not just walk everywhere, in rain you will gain tolerance to cold and immune system will thank you

[@MrVasilicus]

@@efiu12 , you're wrong! 😛 She wants a new small electric car, not a big one, to go from home to her job place, to park it easier, due to the huge trafic jam and the lack of the parking spots in Cluj-Napoca. Later, hater! 😛🤦🖕🤫

[@jameschapman4824]

It also going to be made in China hence the price.

[@ouethojlkjn]

Not only is it a cheap EV, it is pretty much the cheapest CAR you can get in the UK. There is pretty much nothing under £15k that isn't a Dacia already.

[@jimbrown2688]

You can get an excellent used low mileage car for 15k. There's no need for a brand new car...

[@pauls3075]

No one is prepared to pay more for a car that will depreciate 40% in the first year.

[@gingernutpreacher]

​​​@@pauls3075what! That's what people already do with PCP

[@FreekHoekstra]

@@jimbrown2688what? You realize that this car will sometime be sold second hand too for less.. Bringing it to even more people. Ofcourse theres a need for lower priced new vehicles.

[@brendanpells912]

Presumably that £14,995 price is for the 45HP variant. It also appears to have only 2 seat belts in the rear, so definitely a 4-seater, not a 5-seater. When tested by NCAP in 2021 it received a 1 star rating.

[@jonevansauthor]

October is when it ships apparently, for anyone who doesn't want to look through a dozen articles and their website to find the most important information about it. It seems £15K for the basic, £16K for the mid and £17K for the top range one. If I understood it correctly, the top end one has some level of vehicle to device charging which is a pretty good way to upsell it, and a lot more reasonably priced than getting a 1TB drive on your Apple product ;)

[@jonevansauthor]

Note, I didn't find the release date on Dacia's website. Which is deceptive but what do we expect from legacy ICE?

[@jonevansauthor]

By the way, the longest road trip I'd do would be 217 miles. So I'd have to charge on the way. Big deal. I can plan for that, just like I used to plan long drives in a petrol car. Because I'm intelligent enough to drive. If I wanted to go to Edinburgh, I could manage that too. This notion that you can't take a 'low range' EV and get anywhere in the country you want is just total nonsense. Are we going to start acknowledging amputation is anything more than a flesh wound, too? Maybe let our upper lips wobble? Cry at articles on the news? Weep when the puppy dies in a Keanu film?

[@logicalChimp]

@@jonevansauthor bear in mind that at motorway speeds in winter, this will likely get ~50-60 miles between stops (because you don't charge to 100% when fast-charging, and motorway speeds drains the battery faster due to increased air resistance, and winter reduces range due to adverse weather and lower temperatures impacting battery efficiency). Presuming you drive to 10% battery (not wise to drive the battery flat, due to sparse charging infrastructure still), and charge to 80% (charging speed drops off *massively* above 80%, generally), that gives you ~70% of the claimed range... add on losses from motorway speeds and winter (~15-25%, depending on if it has a heatpump, and the actual speeds, etc), and you're down to ~50% of 'official' range. This means a 40-min wait every ~60 miles.... so yes, you *can* make longer journeys in this vehicle, but you'll be making them pretty slowly.

[@nicolasdujarrier]

Vehicule-to-Load (V2L) on such low end vehicule is a plus, but I would definitely prefer Vehicule-to-Home (V2H), to use it to store excess solar energy from photovoltaic panels during the day, and re-use at night, or recharge at lower tariff at night, and re-use during the day. Furthermore, it provides an option as a back-up generator which could come handy for any storm,… Please Renault/Dacia, have your EV compatible with bi-directionnal charging and V2H 🙏

[@CampGareth]

​@logicalChimp should get more than 60 in winter motorway conditions I think. My Nissan Leaf with a now 16kwh usable battery can do 40-50 and iirc the spring's usable battery is nearly double that in a much lighter vehicle. Edit: still not a strong road tripper but that's okay, so long as they're possible and the car is a nice place to be that's enough. I've road tripped my Leaf 270 miles each way and would do it again.

[@georgejohnson1498]

I don't expect a modern car design to be eye candy, and this is not, but everything else about it is well judged. A very attractive and sensible car. Best wishes from George

[@yborloch]

Imogen's working overtime between the fabulous podcasts and videos, she deserves a raise! 😊

[@snowstrobe]

My partner just spent that on a second hand petrol, I was trying to get him to hold off for a bit...

[@Brian-om2hh]

If he spent £15k on a used petrol car, he would probably have been disappointed by this car anyway.... it is narrower than a Fiat 500.

[@jonevansauthor]

@@Brian-om2hh that's a good thing Brian. That's the literal goal of smaller cars, that they be smaller so the smaller they are, the better. But he could easily have got any number of second hand EVs in all sorts of sizes at that price that are better than this car, except not new.

[@MrVasilicus]

@@Brian-om2hh, I heard that they increased the interior space and the trunk space at 380 litres, which owns to the B-class cars trunk, not an A-class car, as it is. 😜

[@MrKOenigma]

The trunk is not 380L ,I think she said 308L Which still is quite a lot for this small rambler 😂😂❤❤

[@Nikoo033]

Should have bought a second hand Hyundai Ioniq Electric 28 or 38kWh for that money, miles better than this Dacia 😂

[@kckfen]

This is great, very good for city transport. Dont know why the petrol head hate EVs so much... at this price this is a very good EV accessible to general population....a longer wheelbase where the wheels is push to both ends help improve interior space, it does not help in turning radius, what help in turning radius for this car is that this car is so short, turning it wont be a issue.

[@trevorberridge6079]

The wheel base DOES help with the turning radius in so much as the wheels aren't hampered by restricted room for wheel movement from lock to lock.

[@nicolasdujarrier]

The problem is that the car is so short that the legroom at the back is pretty terrible… The car should be a bit longer towards 4m to give enough legroom… The quality of the seats seems really bad and uncomfortable compared to the Citroën ë-C3…

[@kckfen]

@trevorberridge6079 A shorter wheelbase shorter distance between the front and rear wheels allows the car to turn more sharply, the longer the wheelbase the longer the turning radius.

[@toad008]

The petrol heads hate EV's because they are too bigoted to find out anything about them.

[@SERGIO-cr6uy]

What a dumb comment: "don't why the petrol head hate EVs so much". Most of us sont care if it's petrol, diesel or electric. The issue with electric cars is the charging time! Not everyone can charge it at home. If I drive a car and I run out of gas, o take a jerrican, walk to the station. Running out of juice with an electric car means recovery truck.

[@lucasroper46]

Yes! That's more like it!! Hopefully this marks the start of a price war.

[@lucasroper46]

@@superleggenda I'm sorry but that is demonstrably false. The average UK driver only drives an average of around 20 miles per day and only 4.5% of vehicles drive more than 41 miles per day. This car is perfectly adequate for the vast majority of people. I'm definitely not saying that some people don't need more. Sure there are some circumstances where more is definitely necessary but I think most people drive less miles than they think. Also, battery prices are coming down rapidly year on year so we should start seeing bigger batteries for less money indicated in consumer prices (one can hope!!), so definitely not the end.

[@lucasroper46]

@@superleggenda Furthermore, I've lived with a Seat Mii electric as my only car for 3 years and counting and it has a 32kWh battery which is not far from the Spring and it is overall a heavier vehicle. I've done roadtrips of more than 200 miles and it's more than acceptable. Definitely not only confined to the city as I've heard many say.

[@forestdad]

There’s already a price war, they are almost giving EVs away

[@Toupycat]

The Spring architecture is absolutely not new. It is based on the Renault Kwid which is an ICE-powered cheap vehicule for India and emerging markets back in 2015, that derived towards an electric version for the chinese market, then for Europe as a Dacia afterwards. Plus, they did not seem to change that platform from the previous generation/facelift to has been out in other parts of Europe since 2020. Great to have the prices for UK! In France where the EV government incentive excludes most car made out of Europe, it will have a serious competition with the Citroen E-C3.

[@dave4803]

This is what people want, a simple EV with no unnecessary gadgets at a fair price. It has a normal-ish gear selector and a real handbrake, even a normal key. This is a real car that any driver could hop into and just take to the road without having to relearn everything. Only downside is range, the range isn't enough for it to replace your current car, ideally they would offer a bigger battery pack option or a second battery pack that is using the wasted space under the boot so it could be bumped up to 170 or even 200 miles range which is the sweet spot for EV's. An example of this is a place I like to visit is a 180 miles from me. If Dacia did that they would be a class leader.

[@narrowboatlongpod4176]

The trouble is that batteries are not only expensive but also heavy. You may find that the brakes need to be upgraded as well as, possibly, the suspension. You've also doubled the charging time and the DC charging is already, shall we say, not class leading. It's designed to be a cheap run around for charging at home and if you want a longer range model then you need to look elsewhere.

[@dave4803]

@@narrowboatlongpod4176 There's a balance, the range isn't good enough as it stands. The car is designed to carry more than it does so maybe not needing too much work. Loose the steel wheels for alloy, the weight saving will give you more miles. Loose the steel panels for plastic, you would probably gain 10 miles doing just that. Now say they did a long range model for 5 grand more, that could do a 180 miles, they could probably fit extra cells in that battery pack and it will do just that. It does nearly a 140 miles now, just gain 40 more miles and it would be a car people could use all the time. Where the Engine would be there's a big space, you could get a second tiny battery pack in there and gain 40 miles, shouldn't mess the car up either. As for other EV's you try finding a simple one like this that is car like without all the crap bolted on, you can't. You try finding a new EV with a real hand brake, gear selector and key. This is 90% there, just the range needs to be upped a little.

[@BMWHP2]

Thanks for the review. Nice little EV, there will be even more this year. The Citroën ë-C3 and the Renault R5 E-Tech. But those are more around €25k, and better allround EV's with a usable range, that can replace our small ICE Smart Cabrio.

[@stevenbarrett7648]

Excellent ! That’s the car and your review. One huge impact will be to pull the prices of other small EV’s down to reasonable levels, who in their right mind will buy the German Mini or the e500 when this arrives later in the year. It will be interesting to see what impact it has on the incoming Chinese cars, sort of whipped the carpet out from under their feet !

[@AsphaltAntelope]

Damn that wipe transition right at the start! Nice editing!

[@GaryJohnWalker1]

A good few reviewers mention a secondhand Zoe or similar for the mid-teen grand budget might be better in terms of spec. But same argument goes for any care - EV or ICE - like the people who claim you could get a not too old big Merc for the price of a new family hatch. This Spring looks great

[@jonevansauthor]

Yes, they're right, of course and you're right that it's always true of any car. I'm grateful for the people who are willing to pay for new just so they can immediately lose thousands the moment they get the thing home from the dealers. I'm wondering what it's price will be second hand in December (it delivers in the UK in October apparently).

[@trevorberridge6079]

Very good second hand Zoes can be bought for less than £5k.

[@GingerPiston]

Except a 2 year old Zoe will still be under warranty, be extremely.low.mileage and better equipped in every way. So unless you're desperate for something brand new, the Zoe is far superior in every way.

[@akhusal]

This car will be even cheaper second hand.

[@davidspencer7254]

​@@GingerPiston zoe, 0 stars NCAP

[@pouleichel2760]

first thing to order is a lowering kit

[@andyballard1883]

Good well thought out vehicle for sure but the style points definitely go to Imogens boots 👏

[@docthebiker]

It's going to fly off the shelf as people are starting to realise they don't need a big heavy battery that takes money and energy to haul around when you don't need it 95% of the time and you charge at home.

[@Sq7Arno]

It's fine. A perfectly practical car. Good price. Good range for the battery capacity. Means you'll be getting loads of driving done for every buck spent charging. And the interior is fine as well. Not the greatest, but for perspective - It's way nicer than sitting in, for example, a modern passenger jet econo class. Exactly how nice does it have to be lol? A value darling for sure.

[@deltajohnny]

Imogen and the car look great! 😍😍 If this Dacia had telescoping steering wheel and more safety, I'd buy it, even paying some extra euros 👍👍

[@Mediumdave1983]

I like this no nonsense style of reviews, cheers! :)

[@likelikelikelikelikelike3971]

The simplicity and toughness might appeal to last mile and local delivery drivers? Nice review.

[@etbadaboum]

Excellent presentation.

[@jaagee6980]

It's pronounced 'Da Cha' not James Mays skit at them of dayceeya

[@definedphotography]

"Good news!"

[@tommydplayskeys]

Looks pretty good. The previous model couldn't really reach motorway speeds but this one apparently goes up to 78mph? I know 70+mph doesn't give the best range but I'd be glad to be able to safely overtake a lorry etc. unlike the older version.

[@MajorKlanga]

I don't agree that it's built on a purpose built platform; it's based on the cheap Indian market Renault Kwid.

[@thekaxmax]

Based on or built on?

[@mikewhitehead50]

True. Which appears to be 8 or 9 years old and has had some updates since. It's built on an EV version of a platform, but not a ground-up EV in my opinion.

[@AJames-jr8kw]

@@mikewhitehead50 made by Dongfeng in China. They had to strengthen the car. China does actually have regulations on battery safety. The Dongfeng version (Nano Box) looks better. Smoother front and way better inside. Of course it is less than 1/2 the price of the Spring.

[@handsofdoubt31]

Dacia could do incredibly well with this. Looks like they've got a hell of a lot right. Even the cheap materials look decent and better than some cars at twice the price (yes I'm looking at you Renault) There are so many people in the UK who this would suit perfectly. We could be seeing a lot of these about next year.

[@SiqueScarface]

For all the sub-23-mile trips, I have a bicycle, and I have a public transport ticket for the whole year. And if you are talking about weekend shopping, I have a tricycle with a loading tray and four supermarkets in walking distance.

[@jakobholgersson4400]

The SUV inspired styling is what I like the least about it. Why not make it sleek and futuristic? Maybe like a modern Fiero or Autozam AZ-1?

[@andrewgage6942]

I wish my daily commute was as little as these manufacturers come out with, I use a motorbike in good weather and my little car the rest of the time, my little car has covered 150000 miles in 12 years and it's only used for work, I combine journeys so shop on route home I don't go out of my way I also cover around 10,000 miles per year on my motorbike

[@Mi82475]

I do love this channel, but I'm sorry, I have to say this is not a "brand new platform", it's the same as before, derived from ad ICE A segment car (CMF-A from 2015), and heavily refreshed with a nice look inside and out and new safety sistems.

[@NealeUpstone]

Awesome! And for once I remembered to watch on Patreon to avoid the same same same KZbin ads all the way through from

[@Yesterzine]

Do they cut the tedious "Everything electric show" ads out of the Patreon as well btw?

[@michaelheadley2041]

Seen it on the preorder, for the DC charging option its £16k. Not bad

[@mikemellor759]

What a great review by Imogen! I love her delivery - fluent & packed with information without speaking too quickly - a star member of the EE team. 👏👏

[@MumrikDK]

Review? Where. It's a car show overview.

[@elononoras1902]

In the city, I love car sharing. These would be awesome for car sharing fleet.

[@BurntFaceMan]

Random none-car related question, as someone from outside of the UK, where is her accent from please? Is it Cheshire, or perhaps Chelsea? Thank you =) She's lovely to listen to i could listen to that voice for hours. Better than Kiwi accents we have here haha.

[@brucekennedy5274]

Bravo Dacia, the times they are a changin.

[@Just-SomeGuy]

Not for me what with the small battery and no doubt restricted range all things considered. However hopefully it will be popular enough to inspire better copycat versions from other manufacturers that help propel the EV revolution forward.

[@narrowboatlongpod4176]

It's got to be a good car for learner and new drivers. Most EVs are way too powerful for new drivers.

[@sebastianstoica578]

2:08 But that is simply not true. It sits on a Renault Kwid platform which is esentially the same car with an ICE engine in it, and of course the Dacia Spring has some chassis reinforcements and some safety features added.

[@luciflash]

That's the old car. Maybe the new one is bespoke.

[@sebastianstoica578]

@@luciflash, there are no changes in the chassis, just the body and the interior.

[@misreb1]

Looks good. I think the light weight will make it a refreshing drive. I hate the weight of electric cars. It does exacerbate my motion sickness. This however is an ideal second car. Unfortunately for me. I only have one car which regularly do over 140 miles over the weekends. Glad to see companies thinking of efficiency. I feel most electric cars don't bother much about it and simply use larger and heavier batteries. When driving on the B roads, the weight of the car is Unfortunately very obvious

[@suryadnb]

Looks like good value for money. The size of the wheels ruin the look of the car a bit. Bigger rims are not going to solve the problem, the outer radius of the tires is too small to make it look good from the side. But that is not as important as the price of course! The fast charging is severely disappointing. Sure, I charge at home 98% of the time, but when I don't I want it to go super fast.

[@davidellis279]

Looks like a great little car at the money but the range will put a lot of people off like a lot of other EVS but for shopping trips it’s not bad at the price,it going to cripple the new Citroen C3 on price and other manufacturers are going to have a rethink on their prices.

[@MrAdopado]

Range looks practical to me. When I used to commute to work I travelled further than any other staff member (out of about 20 people) ... yet that was only 14 miles each way. A car like this would be perfect if you could plug in when you get home. In fact this range would suit us as a second car even though we now live deep into the Scottish countryside and it's a 45 mile round trip if we have to access a supermarket. The only limit applies to people who don't have home charging ... we routinely leave our Tesla plugged in every night at home whether it need charging or not ... and that would be the same with this car.

[@mattacornley]

Johnny Smith with a cameo at 49 seconds ;-)

[@Lissyblanche]

I like it but would love to see smaller cars like smart/c1 size that are no frills, basic and more affordable. I actually liked the basic version of this that Jack reviewed and I'm sure it was much cheaper! Great review Imogen 👏

[@missusmassimo]

I've got one. I live in France. It's a really practical, cheap little run around. A couple of negatives though, the body work is very thin and dents easily and the range is quite short. In spite of the information on the tin (pun intended) I wouldn't trust it to do more than 170 kms without needing a recharge.

[@sevesellors2831]

Great car great price Dacia as usual offering great value .

[@choddo]

That turning circle sounds wild. Half a BMW i3?!

[@Nino500]

I'm pretty sure they're referring to the radius of the circle, not the diameter, so 9.6m or around 31.5 feet.

[@davidpidge]

​@Nino500 she said wall to wall but it does sound impossibly small!

[@bogga666]

For example the Honda e has turning radius of 4.3 metres, and a turning circle of 9.2 metres.

[@CrashUK28]

This what Nissan should had done. Put half of the 60 kWh battery in to basic Nissan leaf you have a basic cheap 30kWh leaf that lighter better range then the old Nissan leaf.

[@pete__wild]

The DC charging being limited in cheaper EVs really feels like they are trying to kill road trips. You might not do it most of the time but when you do having to wait that long to charge is rather annoying for such little range, especially considering it could have at least been 50kw and slightly quicker for nothing.

[@briangriffiths114]

Will sell like hot cakes because there is a huge potential market of people who want a low cost runabout that will be driven in urban conditions, who can charge at home, and who do not wish to rely on public transport or visit the diminishing number of petrol stations in their locality.

[@planestrainsdogsncars4336]

Why did they use news print on the bumpers?..for a weight advantage?

[@megapangolin1093]

Great video, I enjoyed your crisp, clear, fun presentation. You look terrific too. Thank you for not damning the carbecause it isnt an Aston Martin, there is a big market for normal people with this car. Dacia is one of the few manufacturers that design cars for use by people, not for their Company marketing department. Great car, great initiative and hope to see thousands on the road. At least if it needs repairs, at least they will be available. If you buy Chinese, there are NO spare parts, nor a follow up system for parts for their cars- it is alien to them. This is putting up the insurance and running costs for them.

[@xWood4000]

You have some weird artifacting at 7:22. It looks like chroma noise but it's only the red. And you notice that the image is pretty compressed in general

[@LoneWolf-wp9dn]

The spring is not new ev architecture... its the renault kwid ice car that has already sold tons in asia... and this ev is the same car as the old ev... the major upgrade is the much better computer and dashboard

[@Flickerbrain]

Great little car. Great for those many small journeys we make every day but also good for the occasional long trip. We did a long trip this last weekend -family of 5 with baggage in our Renault Zoe. Although I was a bit anxious about finding charging stations, it was absolutely no problem here in Southern Germany. Every charging stop fitted in with our driving break and it was a great experience.

[@stephenclay6852]

Great Ev at that price which to put into context is the same price as an automatic 1,0 LTR Kia picanto. And this is bigger and has a reasonable range for what this car is going to be used for a second car or a city car. And boy a great priced used car at say a year old.

[@i6power30]

I wish they made an EV without stuck on tablet in the center console

[@newtonsofashley8150]

The Citroen eC3 is like that in the basic trim. No screen in the middle. Just a mount for your smartphone

[@thekaxmax]

They do. The Landrover Defender replacement.

[@jonathantaylor1998]

As well as the new entry-level eC3, if you were looking at a used EV, the VW Up! / Seat Mii / Skoda City-Go IV all expect you to just use your mobile phone.

[@narrowboatlongpod4176]

Blame Tesla.

[@Zzeleni7]

Perfect 2nd car for driving kids around

[@jockmoron]

As a second car, ideal. All second cars should by now be electric. For a retired couple, and younger folk needing a bit of mobility that they cannot access by public transport. Should fit a large niche in private transport.

[@peteregan3862]

Great to get the hood lift at the very end. Excellent review. 220 km range. Under 1 tonne - an important metric. But vehicle still does not take advantage of what EV tech enables.

[@simonblurton8009]

Looks like it might be worth getting an electric car soon. The prices are getting good!

[@jvoric]

Be prepared though, from April 2025 the uk government will want £185 of your hard earned money every year in the guise of road tax! That’s for all zero emission cars not just EV’s…we just can’t catch a break in this country! 😢

[@aussieideasman8498]

@@jvoric No country can escape the greed of its government.

[@anthonydyer3939]

£15k. Cheaper? Relatively so even compared to many small petrol cars! But cheap? Compared to historical petrol car prices and wage trends, there’s still some work to go. Total cost of driving (depreciation, finance, maintenance, insurance, energy costs) is on average a lot higher now for all new cars (not just EV’s) than just five years ago - and that’s true even when looking at just one car segment (e.g. city cars). Consequence: We’re holding onto our old cars for longer. One person I know is planning to keep their 10year old car (bought new for £8k) until the MOT underbody rust advisory inevitably turns into a fail one or two years later. Their comment: “gosh! aren’t cars pricey now!”

[@Calamity-Spice]

Datchea not Dayseea.

[@chrisbeaver5331]

Great review - tempted by this as a possible replacement for honda e as a run around / second car. I guess will have more affordable tyres and will be in a relatively low insurance group compared to other EVs.

[@alexandersaksvoll5373]

It even has a small frunk!!😀 wow this is really impressive and might be the vehicle that makes EVs available to the average citizen or family. Well done Dacia!

[@matthewburroughs9597]

Is that price including VAT? Just to clarify.

[@kosmokramer9502]

I’d love for the Dacia Spring to come to Australia. I’m quite happy with my Extended Range BYD Dolphin, but this would open up EV ownership for a lot more people.

[@nickbowers]

if only it had v2g :-( cool though. we're finally getting somewhere 😀

[@trevorberridge6079]

The higher model DOES have V2G.

[@leehargreaves7473]

If you can charge at home on a cheap tariff then the money you save on fuel could cover the PCP payment (That's what I do with my Nissan Leaf). It also mans that, as a town runabout, you never need to visit a petrol station ever again, you have 100 miles waiting every morning plus the ease of driving an automatic around town. EVs excel around town. No more constant stirring gears and frying the clutch.

[@BlueMax333]

lesser known brands have been known to depreciate heavily. A 1 or 2 year old model from a popular brand will be cheaper

[@XcaliburReborn]

I’ve seen upgrade options on ‘cheap EVs’ propel them from 27k to 38k. Hope this isn’t the same. Hope they don’t release an underpowered thing that no one will actually want, then want 22k for the model that has a passable range and power

[@ronleblanc9832]

nice looking but good for city but think i would like a bigger battery for rural area half an hour drive to town up and back is 91 kilometers without completing much shopping

[@nicolasdujarrier]

Citroën ë-C3 with claimed up to 300km WLTP range should be good in winter for at least 120km, so enough for any 100km round trip in most cases. And the Citroën ë-C3 Max seems to have much better comfort, especially better seats.

[@sebastianstoica578]

@@nicolasdujarrier , yes but also over £5k more expensive.

[@user9b2]

Fantastic presentation Imogen, more facts and less filler sentences or whole paragraphs of saying nothing. 💪💪👍

[@urbanstrencan]

Cheap and cheerful, love the updated design, Dacia Spring 🌼🌱🌱 approved 😂❤

[@danielmadar9938]

Thanks

[@charlesmarsh9608]

Tbey are trickling in at last.

[@cunawarit]

It’s a blast from the past, back to the '80s in terms of size, practicality, comfort, acceleration, and so on. It’s like a Yugo or Škoda Favorit for the modern day. Moreover, the term ‘crossover’ has become meaningless; nothing about this diminutive car is SUV-like-not the shape, size, practicality, or any other aspect. It’s just a very small hatchback in every sense. I’m not being critical; it is what it is. It’s meant to be the cheapest car on the road, and of course, it’s going to be smaller, less comfortable, and not as safe as a larger car. But to label this as a crossover designed to deter us from buying SUVs is misleading. The reason to buy this car is either because you actively want as small a car as possible or you want to keep your budget as low as possible. Let’s start saying ‘hatchback’ again, or small car, or city car, or sub-compact. Let’s stop calling everything a crossover; most crossovers today are just hatchbacks. Also, the claim that this is ideal for 17-year-olds in terms of safety is genuinely disingenuous. The 2021 non-EV version of this car has a 1-star Euro NCAP safety rating. Almost no very small car is very safe compared to the overall car fleet, real world IIHS data has shwon this time and time again. While there are peculiar insurance reasons why 17-year-olds might end up with cars like this in the UK and some other countries, the automotive press should highlight the safety drawbacks of cars like this. To simply state that it is safe is not accurate, and misleads motorists.

[@GudieveNing]

If I don't hear the range within the first few minutes, I sit on tenterhooks stressing that it will poop on the value proposition. Am 2:30 in and no range yet! The stress! OK, it's a city car, with a Dacia specked range of 137 miles and no fast charging. The interior and dashboard is excellent. Attractive with mechanical controls plus twin USB-C I can see from the video. Nice, but thing is, you cannot really go on a long journey. If Nan and Grandad buy this and go over 100 miles to visit grandkids, by the time they get there, they can only do an overnight charge to get back. This is the problem VS ICE hot hatches, that ironically, are small and light, so do 400+ miles for around the same price. This issue of the twice yearly 200+ mile round trip is the issue that has got to be solved if people only have one car and don't want to use the train to do long journeys. So this is really only suited to those who do local driving, which is fine. Love everything else about it. At least Dacia employ an industrial designer!

[@lewismcnicholas2631]

Looking forward to trying one later in the year - the only thing for me is I wish it had 22 kW AC charging like the Zoe as opposed to 30 KW DC rapid charging

[@nicolasdujarrier]

I still think that the Citroën ë-C3 Max will have much better comfort and better autonomy (300km WLTP) with CCS connector as standard and benefit from subsidies (in France), which all in all make it a car that is not much more expensive, but much, much better value for the price.

[@jonathantaylor1998]

Imogen did say that the Spring also has DC rapid charging - which will be CCS - at 30kW charging rate. Also, for someone considering this simply as a local runaround / shopping / school-drop-off car, I'm not sure that the likely £6,000ish uplift for the entry-level eC3 compared to a £15k Spring would be worth making, maybe...?

[@nicolasdujarrier]

@@jonathantaylor1998 I understand. The Citroën ë-C3 will be able to charge at 100kW with the CCS connector, so it is much better. But indeed it will quite a bit more expensive, but the comfort should be much better and the extra range could make it more convenient. In theory, in 2025, there will also be a cheaper model with 200km WLTP range.

[@PeterGarland-y9l]

Nice car Dacia, just what's required. A decent fairly priced EV just right for the average round town journey, and, just as Imogen said, if a longer journey is on the cards, hire something. Don't think much of that biege colour though, reminds me of a Blaster Bates joke about....no I'm not repeating it 😅

[@dominicchesterman2107]

Wow a sensible car from the 1990's with hub caps and rub strips on the side. Plus a sensible size. Shame everybody wants to drive big German cars or Suvs in the over run with cars uk now. I always thought we would be driving Kei sized cars here by now but no.

[@jimsouthlondon7061]

Standard minimum EV range at least 200 miles . 20 miles per day weekly urban run about before the weekly super market car park rapid charge or 200 miles 3 hour trip down the motorway before the first service station rest, toilet, drink break and a standard rapid charge

[@Pete-rf6zz]

Great presenting, nice car for the money theese will be very popular and even better value second hand ❤

[@zSion]

No way it's 15k there has to be a catch

[@GOLFandWRX]

30 KW max DC charging...this is very old tech, small battery 26 kWh, limited range 137 miles. I'm glad to hear of low cost EV's but this won't work for me. Cheers.

[@chrisogrady28]

Almost perfect, I just wish it was lower and had a less bulbous bonnet, even if the car is small the unnecessary SUV-ness still makes it a more dangerous object to be around pedestrians and cyclists than it should be. High driving positions also make me sick but that's just me

[@Supernaut2000]

Let me know when you can deliver 3 of them to Canada, will send cheque.

[@JoshuaMcTackett]

All I can hear in this video is Ordinary World by Duran Duran playing in the background hahaha.

[@rubidot]

I like it. I'd seriously consider that if it were available in the US.

[@maxbodifee3263]

This seems like THE car for 75% of all people. I hope it sells like crazy

[@nicholasroberts6954]

The low rated crash protection and poor acceleration would put me off for my scenario .. Mixed suburban and faster A-:road/local motorway use in and around the suburbs. Fine for the centre of town or grandad and granny in a local village but not for mixing with faster and bigger traffic. Also, the occasional 250 mile journey would be problematic. Wonder if they are going to do an extended version with a slightly bigger motor, battery and longer range and uprated crash protection - even if its a "Bull bars" exo-skeleton

[@stevencowles8419]

Has the new platform fixed the previously poor safety rating, if so this could be a real winner

[@robinheider414]

How would they know what distance the average spring driver would drive, it hasn't been released yet. Charging cycle is horrible if it intended for city driving for apartment dwellers students but then again maybe those who would buy this would not be giving up public transit.

I’m sorry, but where did you get the information that this is a brand new EV platform? It’s still based on ICE Renault Kwid, it has the exact same doors, same door handles, same engine, same battery, same charging as the previous Dacia Spring. This is nothing more than a very nice facelift, it’s no way a brand new car.

[@keithmiller4168]

Same engine? 😂

[@DangerousDac]

Well This is putting the Renault 5 and Citroen EC3 on blast. Coming in at what, 5 or 10 grand less than those? Sure you're getting more, but is it 10 grand more?

[@TheBoothy666]

This is a Renault, Dacia is one of their subsidiaries.

[@comedyman112]

I hope they'll at least offer the psuh to start button as a paid option. Having a physical key for an ev is so stupid. Even most ice cars have push to start buttons

[@z00h]

Something like and such as, innit. The way she was stretching what is 3 mins worth of info into 13+min video reminds me of those edging videos you see on that other tube, that doesn't start with "You".

[@IAM-_-FURY]

Love this quick first look! Fantastic energy, Imogen! Thank you!

[@nottooherbal]

Looks as if it’s faded in the sun . What are the plastic scabs at the bottom of the doors. (What would they really protect the doors from ?) Gimmicky front spoils it and get rid of the dangerous distracting screen inside . A very sensible car spoilt.

[@Pottery4Life]

Thank you.