This is the dacia spring the cheapest new electric car and with government incentives in some markets this is the cheapest new car period is this the future of electric mobility let’s find out by the way this is my new channel mark drives in english so subscribe and why not join my newsletter to get email notifications about new videos link in the description this episode is brought to you by caravaggo be smart choose your car online with carvago what is the dacia spring it started off on the drawing board some 10 years ago as the renault kwid designed for the indian market at the end of the last decade quid was the base for the electric renault city kze for the chinese market a cooperation between the renault nissan mitsubishi alliance and the chinese state giant dongfeng in china the car is also rebranded as the venucia e30 and this takes us to duchess spring the cheapest ev in europe every now and then chinese car makers try to enter the european market but the only successful ventures include buying volvo or being part of some joint ventures recently nio debuted in norway with the es-8ev and perhaps evs is what the chinese car makers really have to offer to the europeans the problem with chinese car brands is that they rarely and barely meet european safety requirements the quid was designed with the asian markets in mind so in order to be sold in europe the spring had to be armed with airbags driver aids safety systems and the construction had to be reinforced and all this amounted to one star out of five in euro end cap safety tests and that’s not just a matter of rudimentary systems or low level of pedestrian crash protection the spring scored low across the board including protection of adult occupants and children ouch therefore before you buy the cheapest new car you can find ask yourself why is it so cheap and why is the competition noticeably more expensive looking for a car for family fun or work the best place for you is carvago.com carvago is a modern platform with vetted cars from all over europe you can buy a car from the comfort of your home and carvage will deliver it to your doorstep caravaggo.com features more than 700 000 cars from vetted dealers across europe you select a car on carvage carvago sends out its experts and presents you the car audit a full report on the actual condition of the car car audit keeps track of 270 technical points includes photos as well as the final evaluation by a carvago certified technician next you simply select financing and delivery options you sign a deal with carvago and carvago buys the vetted car for you you have 14 days after delivery to test the car and return it without giving a reason the price also includes a six month warranty so what’s your car from carvago going to be like from the outside the dacia spring looks like a small city crossover its dimensions place it between the slightly smaller vw up and the slightly larger suzuki ignis i know in some markets the electric e up is still being offered but its days are numbered as it will most likely be replaced by the id1 one thing the suzuki ignis definitely has bigger is ground clearance which i found out the hard way duchess spring looks as it has much higher ground clearance but don’t be fooled yes in the front there is a lot of clearance but under the rear seats where the batteries live there is just 15 centimeters and that’s before the passengers make the car squat also this cable running from the batteries to the electric motor without any protection doesn’t inspire confidence cost cutting everywhere however the boot space is impressive at 270 liters above the floor with additional 20 liters under the floor if you don’t spec the spare wheel fold the rear seats they don’t split and you get 620 liters the spring will also be available in the cargo variant with 1 100 liters behind the front seats dacia promises 103 centimeters load area length and 325 kilograms load capacity ideal for the last mile delivery in the cities now the bottleneck is the boot opening which may be 92 and a half centimeters up here but down here it’s less than 80 centimeters so don’t go overboard in ikea on the other hand the car of this size the boot is impressive it’s about the same size as in the toyota yaris which is a segment above the spring the springs recently announced competitor toyota aygo x has 231 litre boot but the large boot costs legroom in the back yes you’ll drop a couple of buddies from a to b but they won’t be particularly comfortable kids in child seats will kick the seat backs not the best place to travel in the front you can feel how tiny and narrow the spring is i’m reviewing this car the spring in the winter so i wear thicker clothes and often i drive with my jacket on which i know i shouldn’t do but the spring interior takes time to heat up but what about pre-conditioning as in most evs well apparently it will work with my dacia app but at the time of recording this app is still unavailable in poland and i wasn’t able to manually heat up the car while it was plugged in you have to unplug it and then turn it on which kind of defeats the purpose of preconditioning the cockpit is basic an electronic display in the front of the driver and a simple infotainment system in the middle this one gets apple carplay and android auto below are the manual ac controls now be careful the buttons for the ac air circulation and the rear window defroster light up only after you press them so at night you’ll have to remember where they are below is a cubby and buttons for the esp speed limiter parking sensors as well as a 12 volt socket the glove box is quite large and so are the door pockets this is where you can put bottles because there is no space for cup holders between the seats there is only space for the hand brake and the drive selector knob the start procedure for the dot js spring is turning the key wow how old school and holding it until you hear a beep then you press the break select drive or reverse release the hand brake and hopefully you got everything in the right order in order to turn the car off you have to stop put the car in neutral pull the handbrake and then turn the key the dacia spring is cheap not only because of the materials or platform recycling the car has a tiny 44 horsepower electric motor and 125 newton meters of torque the 27.4 kilowatt batteries are good for a theoretical urban wltp range of 305 kilometers 230 kilometers combined i’m driving the spring in the winter so the realistic range is about 160 180 kilometers which is on par what the trip computer is showing when i unplug a fully charged car charging from zero to 100 percent from a regular home socket takes more than 13 hours get a 7.4 kilowatt wall box and this is down to five hours eight and a half hours if you have a 3.7 kilowatt charger at home charging from zero to 80 percent on a fast charger takes an hour in optimum conditions at lower temperatures like we are like we have today it’s going to take significantly longer Dacia states a 0 to 50 kilometers per hour time of 5.8 seconds zero to 100 kilometers per hour in 19.1 seconds 80 to 120 kilometers per hour in 26.2 seconds the top speed is 125 kilometers per hour but the spring feels at home up to about 80 kilometers per hour above that speed make sure there’s nothing on the horizon in your rear view mirror before you start overtaking that lorry on the ring road just for giggles i measured zero to 100 kilometers per hour time and i found out the spring does a quarter mile quicker than it accelerates from zero to 100 kilometers per hour i didn’t have a long enough straight to reach 120 kilometers per hour but the spring is not meant to be raised it’s a small city car which needs just 9.6 meters to turn around a smart fortwo needs about seven meters as a point of reference the steering is light although this test car sometimes makes weird noises with the power steering i’ve driven several per minute rental cars and they didn’t make this noise so i guess it’s a problem with this particular example the suspension is good enough for rougher roads but remember the ground clearance is much higher in the front than in the back visibility on a dry day is okay but when it rains the single wiper leaves a lot of uncleared space around the driver’s side a-pillar there is a reversing camera but during quick maneuvers you may already be reversing before the camera image is displayed and driving at night on dark roads is terrible the headlights are weak and the spring is very narrow so you’ll be blinded in all three mirrors by the car behind you beside the cargo version i mentioned earlier and the regular spring i’m reviewing datsia also offers a modestly equipped business version which is used among others by those short-term permitted rentals here in poland i drove several of such springs during the course of 2021 and as far as i can tell the main difference are the colorful accents on the outside and inside price of the dacia spring for the regular buyers started 20 490 euro for the comfort model comfort plus with orange bits starts at 21 790 euro the latter also gets basic satnav but more important apple carplay and android auto and if you want a measly 33 kilowatt ccs charge capability you need to pay 700 euro on top of the comfort plus model unless you know for certain you’ll charge this car only at home i think ccs is worth having for my reviews in english i use german prices where at the time of recording there is a 9750 euro electro bonus so you can drive away in a spring for as little as 11 000 euro 13 if you splurge on the comfort plus with ccs and that’s not just the cheapest ev on the market but one of the cheapest new cars especially if you take into account it has ac which in the dacia sandero you have to pay extra for in my opinion evs are great for the cities where you don’t need long range and heavy batteries but even driving in the city the spring’s safety is a concern that cannot be overlooked and what do you think about the dacia spring would you buy a ev just for the city or
