FIRST DRIVES NEW CARS TESTED AND RATED

Chinese-built baby hatch has cut the entry price for an electric car by many thousands. But are the compromises acceptable?

TESTED 9.7.24, BORDEAUX, FRANCE ON SALE OCTOBER PRICE £16,995

Priced from £14,995 on the road, the Dacia Spring will arrive in the UK in October as the cheapest electric car on sale (the £8595 Citroën Ami is technically a quadricycle).

Given that it’s punily powered (44bhp) at that headline price and that moving up the model hierarchy is unlikely to prove prohibitive for most cash customers, it’s surprising to learn that many are ordering this new city car in its most basic form: at less than 15 grand, please, with 44bhp, and no matter that it takes 19.1sec to reach 62mph.

Of more interest to most customers, though, is the variant that I’m driving here, which has a whopping 64bhp motor, pulling the Spring’s acceleration from a 1965 Hillman Minx-equalling level to that of a 1992 Renault Clio 1.2 (13.7sec) in one fell swoop.

And it does so while not adding too much to the price: £15,995 in base Expression form or £16,995 in range-topping Extreme trim.

Rather than writing a bigger cheque, most customers will sign up to an acceptable few additional quid per month on finance, and I would estimate stronger residual values for higher-spec cars, so it might barely be more expensive. Either way, the Spring’s affordability is remarkable for anew car, as is Dacia’s way and to which nobody else has yet come close.