The Spring may be sold in Europe under the Dacia marque, but it’s actually manufactured in China by a joint venture between Dongfeng and Renault. Given these circumstances, you shouldn’t be surprised that the automaker had to cut a few corners to keep production costs low.
Based on a platform derived from the CMF-A vehicle architecture of the Renault Kwid for the Indian market, the Spring costs 19,600 euros back home in Romania. Subtracting 10,000 euros covered by the government for going electric, we get 9,600 euros, which is circa 10,500 freedom eagles.
That’s seriously affordable, but on the other hand, you don’t get much in return either. As far as equipment is concerned, standard goodies include a 7.0-inch touchscreen, a rearview camera, manual air conditioning, and a 27.4-kWh battery pack that powers a front-mounted electric motor. Good for 45 metric ponies, the motor develops only 31 horsepower if you press the ECO button on the instrument panel. That way, the WLTP driving range improves by up to 10 percent (Dacia quotes up to 230 kilometers or 143 miles).
Corners have been cut in terms of suspension componentry as well. A twist-beam rear axle with helical springs opens the list, followed by a pseudo MacPherson setup in the front. The biggest difference over the conventional MacPherson setup is the lower wishbone that enables the automaker to yank out the anti-roll bar from in order to reduce weight and production costs.
Knowing these details, does it come as a surprise the Spring leans so much in the slalom test? The car in the featured video also rocks very cheap tires, namely Linglong Green-Max HP-050s that measure 165/70 by 14 inches.
Our friends at km77.com note moderate body roll, “but it leans more than other cars in the segment.” The Spring finished the slalom in 27.9 seconds, which makes it slower than the Maxus Euniq 5 minivan and three EVs from European manufacturers: the BMW iX, Mercedes EQS, and Cupra Born.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?
Google News