Dacia has officially unveiled the second-generation Spring, and the biggest change is not its tougher design or slightly longer range. Europe’s cheapest electric car is no longer a low-cost Chinese import.

The new Spring will be built at Renault Group’s Novo Mesto plant in Slovenia, with an expected starting price in Europe of €17,900. Belgian pricing has not yet been announced, although Dacia Belux promises that every version will remain below €20,000.

That makes it not only a rival for other budget EVs, but potentially for Dacia’s own petrol-powered bestseller, the Sandero.

Compared with the outgoing model, almost everything changes. The new Spring sits on Renault Group’s RGEV small electric platform and grows from roughly 3.70 to 3.85 meters in length and by a substantial 18 cm in width to 1.72 meters. It still has four seats, but Dacia claims one of the roomiest interiors in the electric A-segment.

Boot capacity rises from 308 to 337 liters, or 1,283 liters with the 50:50 rear seat folded, and an optional 18-liter frunk provides a useful place for charging cables. There are also up to three standard YouClip mounting points for accessories.

More car, although also more weight

The mechanical recipe remains deliberately modest. There is now a single 60 kW/80 hp, 175 Nm motor, enough for 0-100 km/h in 12.1 seconds and a top speed of 130 km/h. A 27.5 kWh usable LFP battery provides up to 250 km WLTP range.

The outgoing Spring had only recently been upgraded to a 24.3 kWh LFP battery and two motors producing 70 or 100 hp, with up to 225 km range.

The old 100 hp version was therefore actually more powerful, but Dacia believes 80 hp is sufficient for the car’s intended urban and suburban use.

What has changed more profoundly is the car itself. Weight rises from around one tonne to at least 1,212 kg, reflecting its larger dimensions, new platform and extra equipment. Despite that, Dacia quotes consumption of only 12.7 kWh/100 km.

Charging remains deliberately basic in standard form. Both Expression and Journey receive a 6.6 kW AC charger. A 7 kW wallbox takes 2 hours 55 minutes to charge from 15 to 80%.

An optional fast-charge pack increases AC capability to 11 kW and adds 50 kW DC charging, giving a 15-80% fast charge in 28 minutes. The outgoing Spring offered 7 kW AC and optional 40 kW DC.

The fast-charge package also brings V2L, allowing the Spring to power equipment such as an e-bike battery, lights or a coffee machine.

What do you actually get?

The range has been simplified from three versions to Expression and Journey, both with the same battery and 80 hp motor.

Even the new Expression receives a configurable 7-inch digital instrument cluster, electric parking brake, rear parking sensors, an adjustable steering wheel and driver’s seat, and Dacia’s Media Control system. The latter uses the driver’s smartphone as the main multimedia interface, with a dedicated holder and steering-wheel controls.

Journey moves noticeably beyond the bargain-basement character traditionally associated with Spring. It gets a hands-free key card, reversing camera and Media Nav Live with a 10.1-inch touchscreen, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

Connected navigation with live traffic and European maps is included for eight years, alongside remote charging scheduling, cabin preconditioning and vehicle location functions. Wheel sizes are 15 or 16 inches depending on version.

By comparison, the outgoing Belgian Spring started at €16,990 for the Essential Electric 70 and rose to €19,690 for the Extreme Electric 100.

Essential already had a 7-inch digital cluster but was visibly basic. Air conditioning became standard from Expression upwards, while the 10-inch multimedia screen and electrically operated rear windows and mirrors were features of the top Extreme.

So, although the new car may cost slightly more at entry level, it appears to offer considerably more car for the money: more space, a better driving position, more sophisticated safety systems, a larger battery and boot, optional faster AC charging, and modern connected functions.

Twingo’s cheaper sibling

Underneath, the Spring is closely related to Renault’s new Twingo E-Tech electric. The Renault also combines a 60 kW motor with a 27.5 kWh LFP battery, but manages around 263 km WLTP and starts at €19,500 in Belgium.

Renault justifies the premium with more equipment and flexibility, including individually sliding rear seats and more sophisticated infotainment and driver assistance.

The two cars are therefore less direct rivals than they first appear. Renault Group can use the same small-EV technology and European industrial base to cover two price points: Spring sells simplicity, while Twingo adds design, connectivity and modularity.

Competition below €22,000 is becoming intense. The Geely E2 launches in Belgium at €19,490, with a larger 35 kWh battery and a WLTP range of 252 km. BYD’s Dolphin Surf and Citroën’s larger ë-C3 also hover around €20,000-21,000 depending on offers.

That makes Dacia’s eventual Belgian price crucial. At around €18,000, Spring has a clear daylight gap over its competitors. At around €20,000, some rivals offer considerably more battery life, space, or charging performance.

Successful, but vulnerable

The outgoing Spring was far from a failure. More than 210,000 have been sold in over forty countries since 2021. But its sales history also explains why Renault Group needed to rethink it.

Sales plunged 63% to 22,884 units in 2024 as incentives were reduced, then recovered 53% to 35,034 in 2025, when Spring became Europe’s best-selling A-segment EV across all channels.

Moving production from China to Slovenia therefore matters. The old Spring became exposed to EU tariffs on Chinese-built EVs and lost eligibility for France’s environmentally based EV subsidy. The new car can benefit from European production while sharing development and manufacturing economies of scale with Twingo.

It is also the first of four EVs Dacia plans to introduce by 2030 and was developed in less than 16 months, showing how Renault Group is trying to adopt Chinese development speed without having to import the finished vehicle from China.

Can it beat a Sandero on TCO?

The most interesting competitor may not be another EV at all. In Belgium, a Sandero Essential TCe 100 currently starts at €13,990, almost €4,000 below the reported €17,900 European entry price of the new Spring. But over five years, that purchase-price advantage can disappear.

Take a private Flemish owner covering 75,000 km in five years. Assume the Spring draws around 14 kWh/100 km from the wall, including charging losses, and is predominantly charged at home for €0.30/kWh. Electricity then costs around €3,150 over the entire period.

The Sandero officially consumes 5.3 l/100 km. Even assuming petrol falls back from today’s €2.058/l Belgian maximum to a more conservative long-term average of €1.80/l, the fuel bill would reach around €7,155 – €4,000 more than in Spring.

A broader TCO estimate strengthens the EV case. Assuming a deliberately conservative five-year residual value of 45% for Spring versus 50% for Sandero.

Add around 20% lower maintenance costs for the EV, similar insurance and tire costs, and the proposed Flemish 2027 road taxes and vignette, the Spring comes to roughly €19,500 over five years. The Sandero reaches around €21,350.

That equates to approximately €325 per month versus €356, or €0.26 per kilometer versus €0.28. At today’s €2.058/l petrol price, the Sandero’s five-year TCO rises to roughly €22,400, widening Spring’s advantage to almost €2,900.

What about depreciation?

Depreciation remains the biggest unknown. The new Spring has no used-car history yet, but in this calculation its residual value could fall to only around 35% after five years before the €1.80/l petrol Sandero catches up.

Home charging is equally important. At €0.55/kWh from public chargers, Spring’s electricity bill rises by more than €2,600, largely erasing its advantage. Dacia, however, says that 75% of existing Spring owners charge at home and drive only 34 km per day on average. That’s almost the ideal profile for a small-battery EV.

There is one Dacia that remains particularly difficult for Spring to beat: the LPG-powered Sandero Eco-G. With LPG currently around €0.87/l in Belgium, its fuel costs are dramatically lower than those of the petrol TCe, bringing its TCO remarkably close to that of the EV.