2024 Dacia Spring: Price, range and specs

The Spring has of course been on sale in Europe for the last three years and has sold like absolute hotcakes, with 140,000 of them going out the door. Dacia’s reasoning for not bringing it across the channel is that while cheap, in terms of style and quality it wasn’t quite cheerful enough. This new car features updates to that effect.

2024 Dacia Spring design and equipment

So what constitutes a more cheerful Spring? For a start, it’s now more stylish and bang up-to-date with the rest of the range, featuring Dacia’s new ‘Y’-shaped styling signatures in the lights that flank the grille and black panelling at the rear. Opt for the top-spec ‘Extreme’ version and you’ll also get a load of copper styling accents inside and out.

Around each wheel arch, there’s rugged, easily replaced, easy-repair plastic cladding. All in all, the Spring in appearances is as advertised: cheap and cheerful.

It’s also better quality and better-equipped on the inside, a new 10.1-inch touch screen courtesy of the Duster on top-level ‘Extreme’ cars. For models below that, you connect your smartphone for music and navigation – clever, really. The Spring comes with new ‘Youclip’ mounts, for mounting phones and cupholders.

The updated Spring also brings a bigger focus on sustainability, with animal leather now gone, along with chrome trim. It even gets a five-star Green NCAP rating. 

2024 Dacia Spring: Power, range and specs

So what about the underneath gubbins? This is actually where the Spring really intrigues, especially nerdy car types. See, it’s an EV… but it weighs less than a tonne and in receiving these UK-friendly updates – including ADAS systems in line with EU regulations – it’s only 6kg heavier than before, at 984kg. And that’s for the Extreme versions weighed down with kit.

The light weight is in part informed by the mechanicals and powertrain being tiny, from the 26.8kWh battery, to the electric motor, of which the 65PS (47kW) version is the most powerful. Honestly, that might be an essential box to tick over the standard 45PS (33kW) motor, given in Spring land, the 65PS (47kW) motor’s 0-62mph in ‘less than 14 seconds’ is as fast as you’ll get.

But such is the benefit of being lightweight, the Spring is incredibly efficient, sipping electricity for a consumption of 14.6kWh/62miles(100km). Overall range is 137 miles.

That might not sound like a huge amount but Dacia has the figures to back up the claim that this is all the EV many people could ever need. The average daily trip of Spring owners to date is just 23 miles, at average speeds of just 23mph. Three quarters of the time, Springs were also charged at home.

A 20-80 per cent charge can be achieved in 45 minutes on a 30kW charger. A domestic outlet will charge it fully from 20 per cent in 11 hours, while a 7kW wall box will do it in just four.

The elephant in the room is safety. Everything is small of course but we have to wonder, being as this shares its underpinnings with what was once a Chinese market-only electric Renault, is it all that sturdy? That could have been the sacrifice that means the Spring is as light and as cheap as it is.

2024 Dacia Spring: UK price, equipment and trims

We won’t get the absolutely standard, billy bogo Spring ‘Essential’ models but a 7-inch digital driver’s display, height-adjustable steering, USB media control, cruise control, central locking, electric windows up front, rear parking sensors and a 12-volt charge port aren’t bad standard fit.

It’s the Expression models, which add manual air conditioning and 15-inch wheels, where the UK range starts, from an incredible £14,995 for the 45PS car, while the more powerful 65PS version starts from £15,995.

Extreme spec obviously adds the 10-inch infotainment and copper styling flourishes inside and out. Extreme also gets power mirrors, power rear windows and 2 USB ports. The top-level car also gets V2L charging, for powering external devices.

Even the Extreme is only £16,995, a full £1,000 less than where we expected the Spring range to start. Basic with relative low range and relative low performance it may be but for the money, it’s seriously impressive and bound to be a hit. Pre-orders are open now in the UK, with first deliveries expected in October.