With the Hipster Concept, Renault’s low-cost brand, Dacia, aims to reinvent the future of electric mobility, making it ‘ultra-affordable’ and ‘ultra-essential’. Or, in short, the Dacia way of thinking. And, after some investigative work, we found that the price of a production version could be around €15,000.
“Dacia Hipster Concept breaks with automotive conventions and embodies Dacia’s vision of making electric mobility accessible to as many people as possible,” says the press release. Therefore, the Dacia Hipster Concept offers four real seats and a boot in a vehicle that is only three meters long.
“Since the beginning of the 21st century, the automotive market has evolved, also under the impact of regulation and electrification, towards cars that are ever larger, ever heavier, ever more sophisticated… and therefore ever more expensive,” Dacia describes.
“In this environment that pushes for ‘more and more’, Dacia has been pursuing its goal with determination and success for two decades: to enable as many people as possible to access essential mobility,” the manufacturer claims.
‘Reinventing the people’s car’
“What will really be essential tomorrow? How can we make the electric mobility market accessible to as many people as possible? What if we started with a blank page?…” These were the questions Dacia people were asking themselves.
“This is the most Dacia-esque project I have ever worked on. It has the same societal impact as the Logan did 20 years ago. And it involves inventing something that does not exist today,” says Romain Gauvin, Head of Advanced Design & Exterior Design at Dacia. The aim is evident and straightforward: reinventing the people’s car.
The Dacia Hipster Concept wants to be a companion for everyday life: agile, practical, and economical. “It has everything you could want in an everyday vehicle, measuring just 3 meters long, 1.53 meters high and 1.55 meters wide: four proper seats and a boot that can be adjusted from 70 to 500 liters,” indicates Stéphanie Chiron, Dacia’s Advanced Product Manager.
Weight-driven approach
The Hipster Concept wants to take Dacia’s weight-driven approach even further. It is 20% lighter than the current Spring, for example. A result of Dacia’s overall ‘eco-smart’ approach: less weight means less raw materials and less energy used in manufacturing.
It also means less mass to move, resulting in less energy being consumed. The ambition behind the Dacia Hipster Concept is to halve the vehicle’s carbon footprint over its entire life cycle, compared to the best electric cars currently available.
The concept stands out for its straightforward and robust design: a block sitting firmly on four wheels at the four corners. There is no overhang at either the front or the rear. It would be a little bit over the top to say that the Hipster is good-looking or elegant, but that was never the goal. Efficiency was key.
This simplicity is reflected in the design of the front end, which is entirely horizontal and incorporates sleek headlights. Priority is given to functionality at the rear: the tailgate covers the entire width. It opens in two parts to provide ultra-practical access to the boot.
True to its design-to-cost expertise, the concept features an innovative rear light design. Positioned behind the tailgate window, they do not require their own glass panel. In keeping with this approach, the Hipster Concept is designed with a single body colour and only three painted parts: the front of the car and the side door entry elements.
Big(ger) inside
The interior of the concept has been optimised to offer exceptional space, given its compact exterior dimensions. The interior closely follows the very cubic shapes of the bodywork, particularly with very vertical windows and windscreen, to make the most of the available space.
The glazed front section of the roof provides ample light, contributing to the spacious feel. To reduce costs and weight, the side windows are designed to slide.
Four adults can sit comfortably. “The seating position for the driver and front passenger is identical to that of the Dacia Sandero, ensuring comfort and a safe view of the road. Access to the rear seats is facilitated by the wide door opening and the front passenger seat that tilts forward,” boasts the press release.
Dacia paid particular attention to the design of the seats, combining comfort and user-friendliness with weight and cost reduction. Their design has been simplified, featuring a visible frame and a technical mesh fabric.
The front seats are merged to form a bench seat, a welcoming and straightforward feature that is another nod to the iconic popular cars of the past. Finally, the openwork headrests once again help to optimise weight. The philosophy behind the vehicle reminds us in more than one way of iconic cars of the past, such as the Citroën 2CV or the Austin Mini.
Smartphone is key, literally
Equipped with only the bare essentials as standard, the interior can be customised using the range of ‘YouClip’ accessories developed by Dacia. The 11 YouClip anchor points are distributed across the dashboard, door panels, and boot interior. They can accommodate various accessories, such as cup holders, armrests, ceiling lights, etc.
Connectivity and digital technology are essential features these days, helping to simplify and streamline everyday vehicle use, particularly with the smartphone docking station, which remains faithful to Dacia’s BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) philosophy. It enables seamless connectivity between smartphones and vehicles.
The smartphone even becomes a digital key to unlock and start the car. Once the driver is seated, the smartphone, placed in its docking station, acts as a multimedia screen and displays the favourite navigation app. It also serves as the vehicle’s audio system, connected to a portable Bluetooth speaker that is compatible with YouClip.
No technical info yet
Regarding the drive technology of the Hipster, Dacia remains mainly silent. Of course, it’s electrically driven, but no details are released for now. Will this car be the next Spring, given that there will also be an electric version of the successor to the Sandero best-seller to sell to people who want a ‘normal looking’ car?
Currently, the press information only states that the car is just as at home in the city as it is on country roads or suburban routes. “It is designed for everyday life, offering sufficient range for daily journeys with two recharges per week.”
Dacia claims to meet the real needs of customers, remembering that in France (but also in Belgium, editor’s note) 94% of motorists travel less than 40 km per day. This means that the range of a basic EV, such as the Hipster, would be around 150 km. A scary figure for some people, but if they should care as much of charging their car as they worry about charging their phone, we would be way further in the acceptance of sensible battery sizes and the energy saving involved.
And Dacia to conclude proudly: “With Spring, Dacia is the first manufacturer to have made electric mobility affordable. With the Dacia Hipster Concept, Dacia aims to take it even further by targeting a wide audience that currently cannot find anything to suit their budget. The average price of new vehicles in Europe rose by 77% between 2010 and 2024, far outpacing household purchasing power.”
The official press release gives no hint, but the vague sentence above, about a possible price tag. A little prodding and testing around us makes a €15,000 price tag for a potential production version realistic. That would really be a little bomb in the electric pool, where most manufacturers are promising €20,000 as the absolute lowest goal to be reasonably achieved.
