2024 Dacia Spring: Europe’s cheapest electric car updated

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The €23,000 ($AU38,000) Dacia Spring electric car has been treated to an updated look, more interior technology and new safety features. But it is unclear if it will come to Australia.


The Dacia Spring – the most affordable electric passenger vehicle in Europe, currently priced from €22,750 ($AU37,500) in Germany – has received a makeover with a new look, upgraded interior and a longer list of safety features.

It is now a chance for Australian showrooms as the Chinese-built, Europe-focused electric car – built by Dacia, which is Renault’s budget brand from Romania – is now manufactured in right-hand drive for the UK.

The distributor of Renault vehicles in Australia has long expressed interest in the Dacia brand for local showrooms, but it has focused on all-new models such as the Duster petrol SUV, rather than the Spring.

The ‘new’ Spring is a heavy facelift of a vehicle introduced in Europe in 2021, and in China since 2019 – itself based on the petrol-powered Renault Kwid built in India since 2015.

The European Spring has been stiffened and upgraded compared to its international counterparts – and fitted with more safety equipment – but it still only earned a one-star safety rating in Euro NCAP crash testing in 2021.

Measuring 3.7 metres long, the Spring is one of the smallest cars on sale, shorter bumper to bumper than even Australia’s most compact SUVs such as the Mazda CX-3 and Toyota Yaris Cross.

Powering the Spring is a 26.8kWh battery pack – less than half the capacity of the battery in a rear-wheel-drive Tesla Model Y – matched with a 33kW or 45Nm electric motor, depending on the model.

While it only weighs 984kg in top-of-the-range form – the only electric car on sale in Europe weighing less than a tonne – Dacia claims a 0-100km/h acceleration time of “less than 14 seconds” with the 45kW motor, or “less than 20 seconds” with the 33kW unit.

The Renault-owned brand claims energy consumption of less than 14.6kWh/100km, for “over 220km” of claimed driving range.

Regenerative braking has now been added, while the battery can be charged from 20 to 80 per cent in 45 minutes on a 30kW DC ‘fast’ charger – or 20 to 100 per cent in four hours on a 7kW home wallbox.

Vehicle-to-load technology – which allows the car to power external electrical devices with a power socket that plugs into the charging connector – is now available.

The only exterior panel shared with the previous Spring is the roof, the 2024 model gaining new front and rear fascias with black trim and Dacia’s latest lighting signatures, 15-inch wheels with hubcaps, and protection panels on the side doors that can be easily and cheaply replaced if damaged.

The interior has been redesigned with a 7.0-inch instrument display and – depending on the model grade – a mount for the driver’s smartphone, or a 10-inch touchscreen with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto as the infotainment system.

There are white highlights on the dashboard and centre console area, a coloured accent on the instrument panel, and traditional dials and switches for air conditioning, rather than touch-sensitive controls.

Dacia quotes 308 litres of boot space – 6 per cent more than the previous model, and larger than some hatchbacks one or two size classes above – plus a small storage space under the bonnet, and 33 litres of interior storage capacity.

There are ‘YouClip’ anchor points for mounting more storage, phones, a bag hook, cupholder or lights, while there is a new steering wheel with height adjustment and multi-function controls.

The latest Spring adds key advanced safety technology – many now mandatory in Europe – such as autonomous emergency braking with car/pedestrian/cyclist/motorcycle detection, traffic sign recognition with an over-speed alert, lane-keep assist, a driver attention warning, emergency stop signal and an emergency call feature.

There is a My Safety button next to the steering wheel allowing drivers to activate a customisable preset that deactivates or activates the safety systems as they desire, with the push of a button.

Orders for the 2024 Dacia Spring are due to open by the end of May, ahead of first deliveries by the end of August.

Asked earlier this month about the current status of plans for Dacia in Australia, Renault Australia boss Glen Sealey told media: “I still have that desire [to launch the brand]. Absolutely, it’s well and truly progressing.

“I’ve always said for us it would be [vehicles on the] new platform – the all-new Duster, [so] it wouldn’t be the existing vehicle.

“So that vehicle needs to launch and then we go through the the normal process of number one, making sure that there’s a right-hand-drive vehicle to access.

“Then once it is right-hand drive you need to secure investment to meet [Australian vehicle standards], and then once you secure that, it needs to be a formula that works well within the marketplace, i.e. for us and our dealers but also most importantly for the customer.

“And you have to tick all those boxes first in any business case. We’re undergoing that now.”

Mr Sealey said “we’ve had our hand up for a number of cars” in the Dacia range “for some time.”

MORE:Search Used Renault Cars for Sale
MORE:Search Used Renault Cars for Sale

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Alex Misoyannis

Alex Misoyannis has been writing about cars since 2017, when he started his own website, Redline. He contributed for Drive in 2018, before joining CarAdvice in 2019, becoming a regular contributing journalist within the news team in 2020.

Cars have played a central role throughout Alex’s life, from flicking through car magazines at a young age, to growing up around performance vehicles in a car-loving family.

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