First Drive: Dacia’s Spring is a small and no-nonsense electric vehicle

This car – the new Dacia Spring – takes a slightly different approach. Built in the mould of the traditional lightweight city car, the Spring arrives as the cheapest electric vehicle on sale today. Does this mean it’s a genuine alternative to more heavyweight rivals? We’ve been finding out.

Inside, the Spring has been designed to keep to that budget, so you’re not going to find any quilted leathers or luxurious Alcantara. Instead, it’s all very simple, honest and robust – just as any city car is meant to be, in truth. Green NCAP awarded the Spring five stars for its reduced environmental impact, though this was contrasted somewhat by this Dacia’s one-star score in Euro NCAP’s safety tests.

All versions, however, get a 26.8kWh battery, which Dacia says is equipped to deliver up to 140 miles of combined driving range, or 190 miles if you’re only driving around the city. That’s the same regardless of which motor option you’ve gone for, too. Plug into a home wallbox and a full charge will take just shy of five hours, while a 20 to 80 per cent charge at the Spring’s maximum rate of 30kW can be sorted in 45 minutes.

The Dacia Spring really is refreshingly compact when you first see it in the metal. The doors open with a real lightness and, once inside, you’re met with a pretty straightforward setup. The stubby gear selector is a little unintuitive to use, however, and because it isn’t backlit can be hard to find at night. However, once you’re up and running the Spring settles into an easy-going, no-nonsense type of driving style. This more powerful version would be our choice as it can still get up to motorway speeds in a good enough time and though 70mph certainly isn’t the Spring’s ‘happy place’, it’ll still manage it in a decent fashion.

The ride quality is great, too, and the Spring shrugs off potholes and road imperfections far more assuredly than cars costing twice the price of this Dacia. Wind and road noise are both pronounced, but around town these issues aren’t as prevalent – crawling through urban traffic is where the Spring does, as you might expect, feel most at home.

You’ve got a good range of colours to choose from, too, though only ‘Polar White’ is a no-cost shade – the rest, such as ‘Khaki’, add an extra £650 to the Spring’s price tag. Just one wheel cover option on both specifications means there’s not too much to pick between in this area, however.

The 308 litres of boot space that you get from the Spring is respectable, too, and the area itself is deep and reasonably easy to access. You can fold down the rear seats and increase this to 1,004 litres, too, transforming this compact car into one that is a little more practical than you’d expect.

Naturally, opting for the higher-specification grade does bump up the Spring’s cost, but adds to the car’s overall usability. This inclusion of the infotainment system is handy but, if you were looking to keep costs down, you could always just use your smartphone instead.

The Dacia Spring isn’t going to be right for everyone. Its compact proportions and limited high-speed assuredness mean that busy families or those who do big mileages aren’t going to find it an easy pick.

However, as an urban runabout, the Spring is ideal and provides a welcome tonic to the more heavyweight, expensive options that we’ve seen elsewhere in the EV market. The fact that Dacia has managed to deliver an electric vehicle that undercuts even its petrol-powered rivals should be applauded, too, and it’s a hope that this method continues on into the future.