Three years after its release, the Spring is getting a thorough restyling. Dacia’s city car has a more modern look and offers more current equipment with the ambition of remaining the least expensive on the electric market.
[Updated February 21, 2024 at 11:54 a.m.] Dacia will not have waited long before giving its little Spring a makeover, its 100% electric city car produced since spring 2021. Less than three years after its arrival on the ground French, the Romanian firm was not content to give three brushstrokes to one of its flagship models, on the contrary, it carried out an in-depth restyling.
Metamorphosed on the outside, modernized on the inside, the Spring appears much more attractive with the aim of remaining one of the most attractive electric vehicles on the market (nearly 30,000 sales in France in 2023). But it will have to face tough competition, notably that of the all-new Citroën ë-C3 before the arrival of the future Renault Twingo E-Tech and electric R5, without the benefit of the ecological bonus since being assembled in China now excludes it from the government system. A new situation which could well redistribute the cards.
If the Spring has undergone changes in terms of its silhouette and interior design, don’t look for new features under the hood. The city car retains its two small engines, the first of 33 kW for a power of 45 horsepower, the second of 44 kW for a power of 65 horsepower. The single battery keeps the same capacity as the initial version of the Dacia, 26.8 kWh, which still gives it a range of just over 200 kilometers. Figures far from what is done elsewhere, but Spring targets an essentially urban clientele for whom autonomy is not a primary factor.
Presented on February 21, 2024, the restyled city car should hit our roads in the fall, possibly in October. That is roughly six months after the Citroën ë-C3 and two years before the new Twingo E-Tech, two of its announced rivals.
Long considered the cheapest car on the electric market, the Spring can no longer claim this title with the new provisions of the ecological bonus. If this was reduced by 1,000 euros in 2024, going from aid of 5,000 to 4,000 euros for the purchase of a new electric vehicle for a large majority of French households, the little Dacia, like all models manufactured outside Europe are no longer entitled to any discounts.
With today a starting price set at 18,400 euros, the Spring has every chance of costing a little more in its restyled version. The trend would be towards an entry-level price between 19,000 and 20,000 euros, which would place it at the level of the new Citroën ë-C3 (19,900 euros). With the exception – and it is a big one – that the French brand’s city car could still see its price lowered by 4,000 euros, or even 7,000 euros for the most modest households.
