Added:
16 October 2020
The Groupe Renault eWays event – running from 15th to 27th October – is a look to the future of electric mobility, cities and technology, featuring significant world premieres and panel discussions based on the Groupe’s extensive experience in electric vehicles.
Dacia has revolutionised the new car market with its economic model and existing range of vehicles. The Logan democratised the new car in 2004, the Duster has shaken up the SUV segment, and the Sandero is the best-selling car on the European retail market, and has just been revamped to further enhance its appeal.
Dacia is now writing a new chapter in its history with the unveiling of its first all-electric model. The Dacia Spring Electric concept car was first shown in March 2020, marking Dacia’s arrival on the electric city car market.
Now, Dacia has revealed the full production version of the Spring Electric, however it will not be available in the UK. Two new options will be available in continental Europe for use across different mobility reasons: a version for car-sharing for shared electric urban mobility, and a cargo utility vehicle, for last-mile deliveries with no tailpipe emissions.
The Spring is a revolution: as the lowest-priced electric city car on the European market, it makes electric mobility even more accessible. With its disruptive SUV design, it boasts a spacious cabin, a simple and reliable electric engine and a reassuring driving range. It is a versatile and practical city car.
Electric mobility is gradually becoming part of our daily lives and, as pioneers in this area, Groupe Renault and the Alliance have acquired ten years of unique experience. In Europe, one in five electric cars is produced by Groupe Renault, while more than 30,000 employees are trained in the specifics of electric mobility.
Dacia is adapting electric mobility to its philosophy of offering a contemporary car that meets essential needs: The Spring is a small, spacious, robust electric car offered at an unbeatable price.
Denis Le Vot, member of Groupe Renault Executive Committee, said: “The Dacia brand is about redefining the essential. We are known in the car industry for our different revolutions, first with the Logan and then with the Duster which made the SUV accessible for all. Today, this is Dacia’s third revolution and its name is Dacia Spring. The Dacia Spring will make inroads into three distinct markets: retail market, car-sharing with numerous car-sharer operators throughout Europe and on the last-mile delivery with its cargo version. Cool and trendy, the Dacia Spring will change the game as an affordable electric mobility solution for all.”
Exterior design
Dacia’s first small city car, the Spring Electric breaks the norms of the ‘conventional’ electric car. Its assertive design features attributes from SUVs, such as wider wheel arches, roof bars, reinforced front rocker panel, rear ski and raised ground clearance (150 mm unladen). With its broad shoulders and curved bonnet, the Spring boasts a sturdy look, while its reassuring stature suggests generous interior space. The Spring Electric is still a true city car with modest dimensions: it is just 3.73m long, 1.62m wide (excluding wing mirrors) and is 1.51m high.
The Spring Electric’s front end exudes a strong personality with tapered LED lights with a horizontal line extending into the design of the grille, a ribbed bonnet and a large bumper. A distinctive sign of electric vehicles, the Spring’s enclosed front grille is ultra-modern with 3D elements stylishly concealing the charging socket which opens from the passenger compartment.
The rear lights are fitted with the new Dacia Y-shaped LED lighting signature. LED technology offers high-performance and energy-efficient lighting. The Spring Electric’s bold look is topped off by a colour pack available on the launch version. The mirrors, the decorative part of the roof bars and the ring under the front grille are orange.
The upper part of the rear end features a curved rear window, rounded headlights and smooth lines. The lower part features the reassuring attributes of an SUV, with the bumper section fitted with a solid, unpainted bumper and grey-tinted skid plate. The reflectors are fitted in place of the air scoops and the rear wings are ribbed. These stylistic tricks boost the rear silhouette of the Spring.
The Spring Electric’s wheel trims aesthetically imitate alloy wheels. This is possible thanks to Flexwheel technology: sheet-metal rims are perforated for stylish wheel trims to be fitted – an aesthetic and cost-effective solution should they need to be changed.
Interior design
Inside, the Dacia Spring Electric offers spacious interior and boot. Welcoming and well-equipped, the cabin comfortably accommodates four adults. With generous headroom and a knee radius of 100mm, the rear seats can easily accommodate taller adults. The feeling of space also contributes to the overall comfort of the interior. Front passengers have 23.1 litres of storage space in the large glove compartment, door bins and centre console storage box. Rear passengers have pockets behind the front seats.
The boot offers impressive capacity in its category at 300 litres (not including the under-boot space for optional spare wheel). For greater modularity, the rear bench seat can be folded to provide a total load capacity of around 600 litres.
Standard features include all-electric variable assist power steering, remote central locking and four power windows.
To help reduce driver distraction, a 3.5-inch digital display is featured between the dials, and Google or Apple voice recognition can be activated simply by pressing a button on the steering wheel.
Available as an option, the Media Nav multimedia system includes a stylish 7.0-inch touchscreen, sat-nav, DAB radio, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto compatibility, Bluetooth and a USB plug. Voice recognition (via smartphone) can be activated through a button on the steering wheel. Manual air-conditioning, power mirror adjustments and a genuine spare wheel are also available as options.
The Spring Electric’s passenger compartment boasts air vents and central screen with blue inserts. The chrome-plated rotating dial gearbox is very easy to use with just three positions: D (drive), N (neutral) and R (reverse).
With a turning circle of just 4.8m, the Spring Electric can easily manoeuvre around the city. Its optional parking assistance system provides visual and audio assistance with three ultrasound radar sensors on the rear bumper and a rear-view camera, with images displayed on the multimedia screen with dynamic guidance lines.
Engine and charging
True to the philosophy of the Dacia models, the Spring Electric is economical to buy and use. Available at an affordable price with a driving range of 225 km (140 miles) WLTP, it promotes simplicity, reliability and robustness. These qualities perfectly match its all-electric engine.
The 33kW (equivalent to 44hp) all-electric powertrain is paired with a 26.8kWh battery. Reliable, robust and safe, it has many advantages: smooth linear acceleration, silent running and no vibration. The Spring Electric costs less to drive than an equivalent internal-combustion vehicle, since energy and servicing costs are much lower.
To give it greater independence, Spring offers a wide choice of charging options: on a 220V home socket using the cable supplied as standard, on a Wallbox (with the available optional cable) or on a DC charging station (optional).
The charging time of the Lithium-ion battery is:
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less than one hour for 80% of charge on a 30 kW DC terminal
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less than 5 hours for 100% of charge on a 7,4 kW Wallbox
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less than 8h30 hours for 100% of charge on a 3.7 kW Wallbox
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less than 14 hours for 100% of charge on a 2.3 kW household socket
The free MY Dacia smartphone app allows drivers to check the battery level and remaining driving range in real time, to programme pre-conditioning of the passenger compartment (air conditioning), and also to locate the car. When the Spring Electric is plugged in, the app informs the driver of the progress of the charge and enables them to switch it on or off remotely.
Operating without oil and with a much smaller number of moving parts, the electric engine is reliable and costs less to service than an internal-combustion engine. The Dacia Spring Electric is guaranteed for three years and 100,000 km (62,140 miles) and its battery eight years and 120,000 km (74,600 miles).
Driving and safety
The lightweight and compact Spring Electric has a driving range of 225km (140 miles) in WLTP cycle and 295km (183 miles) in WLTP City cycle (approval cycle that includes only the urban part of the approval cycle), guaranteeing great versatility both in urban and suburban areas.
In Europe, the average daily driving distance is 31km in the city car segment. On this basis, the Spring would only need a single battery charge per week.
The range can be improved by almost 10% by simply pressing the ECO button on the instrument panel thanks to a power limit of 23kW (instead of the maximum 33kW) and a top speed limit of 100kph (62mph).
The electric engine offers plenty of advantages on the road: good response to acceleration (125Nm of immediate torque), no gear change, silent running and enhanced refinement, with zero tailpipe emissions in use.
The Spring Electric has many standard safety features: a speed limiter, ABS, ESP, electronic brakeforce distribution, six airbags, emergency call (SOS button), automatic headlight activation and automatic emergency braking. Active from 7 to 170km/h (4 to 106mph), this system detects, via the front radar, the distance to the vehicle in front (stationary or moving). If a risk of collision is detected, it alerts the driver visually and audibly, before applying more braking force if the driver brakes but the risk is still present. The car will apply them more strongly if the driver does not brake or does not brake sufficiently.
The Spring Electric is cost- and energy-efficient with a total cost of ownership (TCO) lower than that of a comparable internal-combustion vehicle. It even offers the lowest TCO on the market (electric and internal-combustion vehicles combined).
Specific versions
In Europe, the average use of a car in car-sharing is 40 minutes over an 8km distance. The Dacia Spring is perfectly suited to this as it is all-electric, easy to use, reliable and robust. Its pricing also means that it is particularly in line with the economic model of car-sharing and with the customer’s needs.
Based on the expertise acquired with ZITY, the car-sharing service operated by the Groupe Renault and Ferrovial in Madrid and Paris, Dacia has developed a specific version of the Spring for the car-sharing market. It comes already equipped to accommodate technology from operators that enables geolocation and remote door opening (via smartphone).
Available in white and light grey, this version will come with black PET seats (in durable, stain-resistant artificial leather), front door and boot sills, front and rear floor mats, black grained handles and mirrors for greater durability and 14-inch Flexwheel wheels. In the passenger compartment, the driver benefits from smartphone replication (Apple CarPlay and Android Auto). There is also access to navigation and parking assistance devices (rear camera and rear sensors).
Groupe Renault and new forms of mobility
With 9,000 ZOE and Twizy models integrated in different carsharing operations, Groupe Renault is a leader in electric vehicle carsharing in Europe, present in most European capital cities as an operator or partner.
In partnership with Ferrovial, a Spanish service and infrastructure group, Groupe Renault launched the ZITY car sharing service in Madrid in 2017. It now has more than 360,000 active customers. By summer 2020, this self-service car sharing solution was extended to Paris with a fleet of 500 ZOEs. Three months after its launch, more than 22,000 people are already using the service.
Groupe Renault is also present as a partner of car sharing operators in 20 major cities in Europe and Latin America – Green Mobility across six cities in Denmark, Sweden and Belgium, Fetch in Amsterdam and Totem Mobi, which offers Twizy car sharing in Marseille and Montpellier.
A Cargo utility version
Designed for tradespeople, the Spring Electric Cargo features a boot that extends where the back seat is usually located, with a plastic lining on the floor and on the interior wheel arches, four anchor rings and a wire mesh partition separating the front passengers from the loading area. The loading length of this special version is 1,033mm, with a volume of 800 litres and a payload of 325kg.
Available in white, the Spring Electric Cargo comes with standard features including manual air conditioning, radio (with Bluetooth, USB plug and an area for a smartphone holder), fabric upholstery, black grained exterior handles and mirrors and 14-inch sheet-metal wheels with “standard” trims. For weight optimisation reasons, this version does not have a spare wheel.
Technical
Dimensions
Length: 3,734 mm
Width: 1,622 mm (1,770 mm with mirrors)
Height: 1,516 mm
Wheelbase: 2,423 mm
Empty ground clearance: 150 mm
MOTOR
Electric engine 33 kW (44 hp)
Battery 26.8 kWh
AC charging up to 6.6 kW / DC charging up to 30 kW (optional)
Driving range: 225 km/140 miles (WLTP) / 295 km/183 miles (WLTP City)
Top speed: 125 kph (78 mph)
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