I drove the electric Dacia Spring and it was not disappointing. It is a funny, compact car that with its mere 44 hp even manages to cope quite well on the Dutch highway, where it is not going fast anyway. After the first test kilometers, the range of 230 WLTP kilometers does not seem alarmingly exaggerated. For 18 grand this could just become the new Duck in the until now quite exclusive EV landscape.
Will he be?
It very much depends on who is going to buy it. It is crucial that the first plug-in car under twenty thousand euros gets the ordinary private person on his side. If price makes the difference to consumers, and it seems to have been the case since the MG ZS, the sales figures and buyer profiles of the Spring industry and market researchers can learn a lot about the real prospects for electric driving.
The fact that we still cannot accurately estimate this is due to the addition system. The Dutch sales record for the Tesla Model 3 in 2019 said more about the suction power of tax benefits than about the quality of the car, however it helped to remove the barriers. To this day, the EV peak on the business market and to a lesser extent the current purchase subsidies for private individuals give a distorted picture of support for electric driving. You can only be sure that you have the people on your side if they pay their plug-in cars of their own free will and up to the last cent out of their own pocket.
It will be very interesting to see what happens when the Spring hits the market this fall. If the Netherlands does not join in because the current pot of purchase subsidies for new electric cars was already empty in January, then you know what time it is; the private individual still needs a little help out of cold feet or because of his small purse. If he is still a hit next year in the next subsidy round thanks to a state bonus of € 3,700, then you at least know what the private individual wants to spend on an EV; around € 14,000.
If that really happens, the Spring could become what the energy transition urgently needs; the plug-in car of the people, the affordable supermini that in other times was called Fiat 127, Renault 5 or VW Polo. Due to the high price average, this is still not available. The ID.3 will never be the new Golf. The common man or woman can write him on his stomach with a price tag of almost 40 grand. But also half of the Spring still has a substantial handicap. In addition to the all-rounder who used to be a B-segmenter for about this money, he still has too little to offer despite his earnings. With a range of just over 200 kilometers, you still have to compromise on deployability on a normal car with a combustion engine, and I suspect that will hold back many people without unlimited resources for the time being. So, despite state aid, if he doesn’t get that big breakthrough, we know what time it is.
You don’t have to buy the Spring. Dacia also wants to use it as a shared car. It is technically prepared for it with geolocation and the option to unlock it via an app. But I do not share the optimism about the shared car formula. Most people just want their own steed on their doorstep and with good reason; you have a car for that.
Now the question of conscience. Would I buy it? Undoubtedly, if my commute took place within the Randstad. Then I could do just fine with that little one. But as long as I travel west every week from North Drenthe and soon from Groningen for test cars, a Spring is not an option. The EV’s emancipation is only complete when it can do as much as regular cars. The real tipping point is still a long way off.