Confirmed: Dacia’s tiny cheap EV is springing over to Britain

Back in March 2021, Dacia gave us some Bad News. Despite offering the new Spring EV for a hilariously low price in Germany, the company resoundingly kiboshed hopes that the ultra-affordable electric supermini would make the Channel hop to UK shores.

Well guess what… there’s Good News at long last. Dacia has announced with some fanfare that it’s changed its mind. Brits will be able to buy the new entry-level EV from next year. Take that, cost of living crisis.

Prices aren’t confirmed yet, given interest rates are fluctuating more wildly than Glastonbury 2024 headliner predictions, but with a pre-grant price of around €20k in Germany, hopes are high this could be the cheapest five-door EV on British soil. 

For not much money, you get not much range. Obviously. The battery is a 27kWh tiddler that manages a mere 143 miles, and with only 44bhp and a 19-second 0-62mph dawdle, it’s more placid than Tesla Plaid. 

But when most UK commutes take place at 000.1mph in appalling traffic, do we care? This is like a bargain basement Honda E (with more range!). A Renault Zoe a la Primark. A more practical Fiat 500e outta the middle aisle of Lidl. It could be 2024’s most relevant car.

Why is Dacia so confident that we’ll like it? Well, it’s been watching how people in other nations use their Springs. Big Brother, anyone?

"Data collected from the Spring’s connected services has provided an insight into how the full four-seat hatchback has met European customers’ requirements", says Dacia's robot overlord.

"On average, customers’ daily commutes last under 20 miles and are covered at 16mph, while in 75% of cases, the Spring is charged at home for an average duration of 3.5 hours."

Oh, and the top speed? 78mph. Sounds fine to us. You literally can’t get caught speeding in this. So it’ll be cheap to buy, run and not too hard on your licence either.

Fancy one?