The Dacia Spring: A French Electric Car with Surprising Charm

Another thing that stands out about this electric car is the suspension, which is all soft and squidgy. This means it's okay over speed bumps and holes in the ground, providing a smoother ride. As an electric car, one of its great advantages is how well it handles, particularly when it comes to turning circles. With a diameter of just 9.5 meters, it's one of the tightest on the market. I had the chance to test it out and see how it handled, but unfortunately, there were some obstacles that made this task more challenging than expected.

As I navigated through the streets, I noticed that the steering was incredibly light, making it easy to maneuver. However, this also meant that I had to be careful not to annoy other drivers, such as scooter riders who were gesturing for me to get out of their way. Despite the occasional frustration with other road users, the car itself felt well-equipped and practical. It comes with a range of features that most buyers would find essential, including air conditioning, cruise control, and an entertainment screen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto compatibility.

One area where the Dacia Spring excels is in terms of interior space. With a length of just 3.7 meters, you might expect it to be cramped inside, but surprisingly, there's enough room for passengers and cargo. The front seats are raised up slightly from the floor, providing ample legroom, while the seat base is deep and supportive. This means that even those with long legs can get comfortable without feeling like their knees are going to knock against the dashboard.

Another advantage of the Dacia Spring is its affordability. As an electric car, it's surprisingly cheap compared to many others on the market. The low price point also has a silver lining: because it's so inexpensive, you're less likely to worry about minor dents and scratches. In fact, the car holds its value remarkably well, especially for an electric vehicle. After just one year of ownership, the Dacia Spring will have only depreciated by 20%, which is significantly better than many other cars.

To put this into perspective, let's compare it to another affordable electric car, the Renault Zoe. A brand-new Zoe costs around £30,000, but after a year, its value drops to just £5,000 - that's a whopping 50% depreciation! The Dacia Spring, on the other hand, is priced at £16,000, and it retains over half its value after one year, which is roughly twice as much as the Renault Zoe.

After putting the Dacia Spring through its paces and calculating its energy consumption, I found that it's used a relatively small amount of power to cover just 28 kilometers. The battery pack has an estimated range of 137 miles on a full charge, although this may not be entirely accurate in real-world driving conditions. To give you an idea of how the Dacia Spring performs in everyday use, let's consider its charging capabilities. While it's not incredibly fast, the car can charge at up to 34 kW on AC power, and there's also a slower 7 kW DC charging option available.

Overall, my verdict on the Dacia Spring is mixed. While it has some serious advantages over many of its competitors, including its impressive interior space and affordable price point, there are also some drawbacks. The car's claimed range may be slightly optimistic, and its charging speed is not particularly impressive. However, as a budget-friendly electric vehicle, I think the Dacia Spring is definitely worth considering for anyone looking to make a sustainable switch without breaking the bank.

For those interested in seeing more content from our channel, be sure to check out our video windows section, where you'll find a range of videos showcasing various cars and automotive-related topics. And if you have any questions or disagreements with my review in the comments below, we'd love to hear them!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwhy are so many people buying a daa spring it's only been on sale for 2 years yet daa managed to sell 120,000 in that time however is it a bad thing that so many people want to buy a supposedly poverty spec car let's find out right let's get underway I'm actually in a car park at Charles deal airport and I'm heading what looks like the wrong way good start to a location just outside the very very center of Baris to go and do a video of the new Rena 5 electric car now make sure you subscribe to this channel so you get to see that video as soon as it's uploaded I'm just going to find somewhere to turn around and I can go the right way let's try this again I do quite like the gear selector that's handy the way we go the correct way this time duh one of the biggest problems with the daier spring is its range the reason it so cheap is because it doesn't have a very big battery so youve got a 25 KW usable battery pack that gives you a range of up to 143 mi in the entry level essential 45 and 137 mi in the extreme model now I've got the details of some of its competitors a Volkswagen eup that has a usable battery capacity of 32 KW hours good for range of 160 Mi and this an Leaf has a battery capacity of 39 KW hours it's a range of 168 Mi of oxal corser 48 KW battery pack and 246 Mi a Perse E28 48 KW battery pack 232 Mi A Renault Zoey obviously Renault owns Dua that has a battery capacity of 52 KW hours and a claimed range of 239 Mi not ideal however the daer is supposed to be quite efficient in its use of its energy supposed to be able to do 4.5 m per kwatt hour what would it really do though I'm going to find out right so we have 82% of battery remaining the odometer says 6,080 km I'm going to go for a drive and see how much battery I have left when I get to my destination what will the true efficiency be let's be brutally honest this car feels very cheap here on the inside first off the steering wheel it's so rough that you can actually exfoliate your hands as you're driving along it's managed to get rid of my calluses also there's just bits missing that you find on normal cars where is the vanity mirror for the drive and the light is it one for the passenger Oh no just a big airbag warning sticker and listen to this the noise that makes when you put that back up there's not much soundproofing in here and the metal on the car just seems so thin and flimsy listen to the door shut in found the whole car wobbles when you did that as well we're also missing some key things but where's the colders there's no capup holders there's a distinct lack of money going into the development for instance if someone had spent time developing and testing this car there's no way they' to put the USB input up here because look when you have your cable you want to plug your phone in this happens look it's material quality throughout is very very scratchy also there's absolutely no damping on the glove box what's more you can't adjust the steering wheel at all that's frustrating then there's the seats this is the top of the range version with fake leather though it just feels more like plastic reminds of the seats in my mom's old Mini yes this feels like a cheap car and then when you jump into the back seats you notice that there really isn't anything besides the seats here no door bins no armrest in fact the seats don't even appear here to split the just a single bench look while we're at it let's just test some more door shut so come on listen to it from the outside but this is the worst bit listen to this look at it look at it shake yes it is a bit poverty isn't it this car or maybe it's just cheap and cheerful the daier spring has pretty poor performance the entry level car has just 45 horsepower and takes 19 seconds to get from 0 to 60 MPH this model the rain chopping version is called the extreme but the performance is anything but it's only got 65 horsepower and takes 13.7 seconds to get to 60 MPH now I'm going to show you just how poor the performance is when you're cruising along on the motorway I'm doing 80 km an hour I'm going to floor it to get up to the speed limit which is 110 let's see how long that takes 80 flooring it now come on it's 90 that's 100 that's 110 right there not terrible not totally terrible but it's definitely the slowest accelerating electric car I've ever driven the daer spring gets a little bit out of shape when you drive it quickly through some Corners leans quite a lot in the bends now I could show you that actually happening out on the road but I don't need to I can give you a demonstration as to what it's like look look at that it's soft and squidgy and all over the place this car isn't particularly good at higher speed or longer Journeys not that you can go all that far because of the range basically it lacks any form of refinement you can pretty much hear all the vehicles around you such as that motorbike that just went past there's quite a bit of wind noise something that you really notice on electric cars because there's no internal combustion engine weing away and there's like an echo from the rear tires just reverberating around the uninsulated boot this could get very tiring so too could the seats so there's literally no lateral support so you flop about in them and I don't know what it is it's like they've been designed like the seats that you get at airports or at bus stations where they're kind of designed to actually get you to move on rather than stay and rest for a long period of time oh and then there's a suspension whenever you go of an expansion joint or a little bit of a bump at speed you get a big bounce and the car sort of carries on bouncing because it's as though they haven't fitted it with any dampers the cost savings are definitely evident at higher speeds so too is the car's lack of stability it only weighs just over a ton which is quite good for an electric car but then that's because it hasn't really got a very big battery and it's made out of tin foil as a result it does get blown about a bit in the wind so you find yourself just like constantly correcting and getting a bit nervous when you go past big lorries cuz they can just push you aside with a draft it feels cheap buying a new or used car then you need to visit carw and we'll help you find your perfect car at a price you'll love just answer a few simple questions about the car you want and our trusted dealers will come back to you with great offers then choose the offer that's right for you and contact the dealer directly through carwow no haggling no fees and on average car users save over £1,800 but what if you're not sure which car you actually want no problem just watch our insightful video reviews read our impartial expert advice or use our helpful car buying tools to discover your ideal car in no time at all no wonder 95% of customer surveyed said they wouldn't buy a car without car wow I've put a link in the description of this video and the pin comment to take you directly to car W so you can see for yourself how it can help you or you can just click on the pop out Banner that should be appearing up there right now alternatively just Google help me carw and my team and I will help you choose your perfect car and get it for a price your'll love now on with the video thing is though all those negatives I've just mentioned aren't enough to put off the 30,000 people in France that have bought a daa spring there's plenty to like about this car but the key thing is the price you see a lot of people get worked up about the price of electric cars however I'm quite relaxed about how much this daa spring costs it starts from just 16,000 for the entry level version whereas this range topping model is £17,000 now to put that into context a fat 500e cost £26,000 and A Renault Zoe is £30,000 the spring is super easy to drive around town I it's perfect for places like Paris visibility is good decent VI the wind screen decent Windows decent Siz door mirrors decent view at the back as well another thing is the suspension is all soft and squidgy so it's okay over speed hums over manhole covers over holes like that in the ground that there we go and one of the great things about it being an electric car it has a very good turning Circle it's just 9.5 M the only other car that you can buy right now which I think has a better turning circle is a citran Amy want to see it in action here we go not supposed to turn around here but I don't care because I'm a Brit abroad minute I'm not so sure about that what a strange noise from the steering at least the steering itself is nice and light so very light I think I'm annoying a scooter rider he's gesturing me to get out of his way here he is he's probably going to hit the car hello hi you're right sorry British every an idiot and you know what if I'm being perfectly honest this car has all the kit you really actually need well apart from the aforementioned vanity mirrors I got an entertainment screen there and it's got apple carplay and Android auto and yeah I know I M about this cable but you can get something called Android auto Wireless and it'll just you know you can stick a little box there and then you can connect your phone wirelessly I've got air conditioning great I've also got cruise control I have a reversing camera and all around electric windows I'd say I'm good considering this car is just 3.7 M long there's actually an all right amount of space here in the back head room it's all right you might think knee room oh that's terrible but it's not as bad as you think because this car's cheapness actually pays off here in the back cuz look as this is quite flimsy I can jab my knees like that into the back so people with really long legs will be able to get away with that also unlike in some other electric cars the seats are quite high from the floor so you don't feel like your knees are up around your ears and the seat base is quite deep so there's plenty of under thigh support and the front seats are raised up slightly so you can put your feet underneath the seating front to stretch out a bit more for a small and very inexpensive car the daa spring is surprisingly practical the boot capacity is 290 L by comparison a box or corser ease boot capacity is 267 L and that car costs almost twice the price of this another great thing about the duer spring is that because it's so cheap I don't really care so much if it gets damaged it's not expensive to fix I would bother repairing it PR suited some dents in it it's very French a dented car look like a dented van that's so French no offense French people but you don't really give a about the condition of your cars the daer spring holds its value really well especially for an electric car after 1 year it will only a fallen in value by 20% so if you pay 16 grand for one it's going to be worth about £12,000 that's about twice the price of my watch seems amazing value to put it into context a Rena Z cost new from around £30,000 but will only be worth about £5,000 after 1 year that's 50% depreciation this spring is very very tempting okay so I've arrived at my destination let's see exactly how much energy I've used for how far I've gone so the odometer is reading 6,18 km so I've done 28 km and the remaining battery is 68% so I've used 14% of the battery so when I do the mass based on this being a 25 KW hour battery pack TR give me a range in the real world of 200 km convert to miles that's 125 mil on a full charge and this particular version of the spring is supposed to do 137 so it's getting close to claimed it's just that claimed isn't all that much when it comes to charging it's not great either because it's quite slow fast charging maximum is 34 KW on AC the maximum it will do is 7 KW that's the trouble with small batteries you can't charge them that quickly but that does bring me on to my overall verdict for the daier spring you see while there's plenty to like about it there's also plenty to not like about it and if I'm being brutally honest I would rather have a one-year-old Renault Zoey than a brand new daa spring oh well anyway I hope you enjoyed the video if you did give it a like let me know if you agree with my verdict in the comments below click on the video windows for some more videos and on the car box for a special surprise thanks for watchingwhy are so many people buying a daa spring it's only been on sale for 2 years yet daa managed to sell 120,000 in that time however is it a bad thing that so many people want to buy a supposedly poverty spec car let's find out right let's get underway I'm actually in a car park at Charles deal airport and I'm heading what looks like the wrong way good start to a location just outside the very very center of Baris to go and do a video of the new Rena 5 electric car now make sure you subscribe to this channel so you get to see that video as soon as it's uploaded I'm just going to find somewhere to turn around and I can go the right way let's try this again I do quite like the gear selector that's handy the way we go the correct way this time duh one of the biggest problems with the daier spring is its range the reason it so cheap is because it doesn't have a very big battery so youve got a 25 KW usable battery pack that gives you a range of up to 143 mi in the entry level essential 45 and 137 mi in the extreme model now I've got the details of some of its competitors a Volkswagen eup that has a usable battery capacity of 32 KW hours good for range of 160 Mi and this an Leaf has a battery capacity of 39 KW hours it's a range of 168 Mi of oxal corser 48 KW battery pack and 246 Mi a Perse E28 48 KW battery pack 232 Mi A Renault Zoey obviously Renault owns Dua that has a battery capacity of 52 KW hours and a claimed range of 239 Mi not ideal however the daer is supposed to be quite efficient in its use of its energy supposed to be able to do 4.5 m per kwatt hour what would it really do though I'm going to find out right so we have 82% of battery remaining the odometer says 6,080 km I'm going to go for a drive and see how much battery I have left when I get to my destination what will the true efficiency be let's be brutally honest this car feels very cheap here on the inside first off the steering wheel it's so rough that you can actually exfoliate your hands as you're driving along it's managed to get rid of my calluses also there's just bits missing that you find on normal cars where is the vanity mirror for the drive and the light is it one for the passenger Oh no just a big airbag warning sticker and listen to this the noise that makes when you put that back up there's not much soundproofing in here and the metal on the car just seems so thin and flimsy listen to the door shut in found the whole car wobbles when you did that as well we're also missing some key things but where's the colders there's no capup holders there's a distinct lack of money going into the development for instance if someone had spent time developing and testing this car there's no way they' to put the USB input up here because look when you have your cable you want to plug your phone in this happens look it's material quality throughout is very very scratchy also there's absolutely no damping on the glove box what's more you can't adjust the steering wheel at all that's frustrating then there's the seats this is the top of the range version with fake leather though it just feels more like plastic reminds of the seats in my mom's old Mini yes this feels like a cheap car and then when you jump into the back seats you notice that there really isn't anything besides the seats here no door bins no armrest in fact the seats don't even appear here to split the just a single bench look while we're at it let's just test some more door shut so come on listen to it from the outside but this is the worst bit listen to this look at it look at it shake yes it is a bit poverty isn't it this car or maybe it's just cheap and cheerful the daier spring has pretty poor performance the entry level car has just 45 horsepower and takes 19 seconds to get from 0 to 60 MPH this model the rain chopping version is called the extreme but the performance is anything but it's only got 65 horsepower and takes 13.7 seconds to get to 60 MPH now I'm going to show you just how poor the performance is when you're cruising along on the motorway I'm doing 80 km an hour I'm going to floor it to get up to the speed limit which is 110 let's see how long that takes 80 flooring it now come on it's 90 that's 100 that's 110 right there not terrible not totally terrible but it's definitely the slowest accelerating electric car I've ever driven the daer spring gets a little bit out of shape when you drive it quickly through some Corners leans quite a lot in the bends now I could show you that actually happening out on the road but I don't need to I can give you a demonstration as to what it's like look look at that it's soft and squidgy and all over the place this car isn't particularly good at higher speed or longer Journeys not that you can go all that far because of the range basically it lacks any form of refinement you can pretty much hear all the vehicles around you such as that motorbike that just went past there's quite a bit of wind noise something that you really notice on electric cars because there's no internal combustion engine weing away and there's like an echo from the rear tires just reverberating around the uninsulated boot this could get very tiring so too could the seats so there's literally no lateral support so you flop about in them and I don't know what it is it's like they've been designed like the seats that you get at airports or at bus stations where they're kind of designed to actually get you to move on rather than stay and rest for a long period of time oh and then there's a suspension whenever you go of an expansion joint or a little bit of a bump at speed you get a big bounce and the car sort of carries on bouncing because it's as though they haven't fitted it with any dampers the cost savings are definitely evident at higher speeds so too is the car's lack of stability it only weighs just over a ton which is quite good for an electric car but then that's because it hasn't really got a very big battery and it's made out of tin foil as a result it does get blown about a bit in the wind so you find yourself just like constantly correcting and getting a bit nervous when you go past big lorries cuz they can just push you aside with a draft it feels cheap buying a new or used car then you need to visit carw and we'll help you find your perfect car at a price you'll love just answer a few simple questions about the car you want and our trusted dealers will come back to you with great offers then choose the offer that's right for you and contact the dealer directly through carwow no haggling no fees and on average car users save over £1,800 but what if you're not sure which car you actually want no problem just watch our insightful video reviews read our impartial expert advice or use our helpful car buying tools to discover your ideal car in no time at all no wonder 95% of customer surveyed said they wouldn't buy a car without car wow I've put a link in the description of this video and the pin comment to take you directly to car W so you can see for yourself how it can help you or you can just click on the pop out Banner that should be appearing up there right now alternatively just Google help me carw and my team and I will help you choose your perfect car and get it for a price your'll love now on with the video thing is though all those negatives I've just mentioned aren't enough to put off the 30,000 people in France that have bought a daa spring there's plenty to like about this car but the key thing is the price you see a lot of people get worked up about the price of electric cars however I'm quite relaxed about how much this daa spring costs it starts from just 16,000 for the entry level version whereas this range topping model is £17,000 now to put that into context a fat 500e cost £26,000 and A Renault Zoe is £30,000 the spring is super easy to drive around town I it's perfect for places like Paris visibility is good decent VI the wind screen decent Windows decent Siz door mirrors decent view at the back as well another thing is the suspension is all soft and squidgy so it's okay over speed hums over manhole covers over holes like that in the ground that there we go and one of the great things about it being an electric car it has a very good turning Circle it's just 9.5 M the only other car that you can buy right now which I think has a better turning circle is a citran Amy want to see it in action here we go not supposed to turn around here but I don't care because I'm a Brit abroad minute I'm not so sure about that what a strange noise from the steering at least the steering itself is nice and light so very light I think I'm annoying a scooter rider he's gesturing me to get out of his way here he is he's probably going to hit the car hello hi you're right sorry British every an idiot and you know what if I'm being perfectly honest this car has all the kit you really actually need well apart from the aforementioned vanity mirrors I got an entertainment screen there and it's got apple carplay and Android auto and yeah I know I M about this cable but you can get something called Android auto Wireless and it'll just you know you can stick a little box there and then you can connect your phone wirelessly I've got air conditioning great I've also got cruise control I have a reversing camera and all around electric windows I'd say I'm good considering this car is just 3.7 M long there's actually an all right amount of space here in the back head room it's all right you might think knee room oh that's terrible but it's not as bad as you think because this car's cheapness actually pays off here in the back cuz look as this is quite flimsy I can jab my knees like that into the back so people with really long legs will be able to get away with that also unlike in some other electric cars the seats are quite high from the floor so you don't feel like your knees are up around your ears and the seat base is quite deep so there's plenty of under thigh support and the front seats are raised up slightly so you can put your feet underneath the seating front to stretch out a bit more for a small and very inexpensive car the daa spring is surprisingly practical the boot capacity is 290 L by comparison a box or corser ease boot capacity is 267 L and that car costs almost twice the price of this another great thing about the duer spring is that because it's so cheap I don't really care so much if it gets damaged it's not expensive to fix I would bother repairing it PR suited some dents in it it's very French a dented car look like a dented van that's so French no offense French people but you don't really give a about the condition of your cars the daer spring holds its value really well especially for an electric car after 1 year it will only a fallen in value by 20% so if you pay 16 grand for one it's going to be worth about £12,000 that's about twice the price of my watch seems amazing value to put it into context a Rena Z cost new from around £30,000 but will only be worth about £5,000 after 1 year that's 50% depreciation this spring is very very tempting okay so I've arrived at my destination let's see exactly how much energy I've used for how far I've gone so the odometer is reading 6,18 km so I've done 28 km and the remaining battery is 68% so I've used 14% of the battery so when I do the mass based on this being a 25 KW hour battery pack TR give me a range in the real world of 200 km convert to miles that's 125 mil on a full charge and this particular version of the spring is supposed to do 137 so it's getting close to claimed it's just that claimed isn't all that much when it comes to charging it's not great either because it's quite slow fast charging maximum is 34 KW on AC the maximum it will do is 7 KW that's the trouble with small batteries you can't charge them that quickly but that does bring me on to my overall verdict for the daier spring you see while there's plenty to like about it there's also plenty to not like about it and if I'm being brutally honest I would rather have a one-year-old Renault Zoey than a brand new daa spring oh well anyway I hope you enjoyed the video if you did give it a like let me know if you agree with my verdict in the comments below click on the video windows for some more videos and on the car box for a special surprise thanks for watching\n"