Dacia Spring Review 2025: Price, specs & boot space

If you’re set on buying a brand-new EV and the price is more important than anything else, then yes. The eyebrow-raising entry point for the Spring is its greatest asset, with the pint-sized EV undercutting everything else out there that’s an actual car (more on that shortly), including various Chinese upstarts. 

However, you have to remember the Dacia Spring is based on the Renault City K-ZE, a car originally intended for emerging markets whose roots can be traced back to the 10-year-old Renault Kwid. It was only a couple of years into its life that Renault Group started importing it to Europe as the Dacia Spring, and from 2024 that it arrived in the UK thusly branded. 

As such, the cost savings relative to slightly more expensive but still cheap electric cars like the Citroen e-C3 will be noticeable. There will be plenty of reminders about where the savings have come from, and also, the Spring isn’t an EV to buy if you’re travelling great distances - the battery range is limited. For mostly urban driving it'll be fine, though.

We haven't driven the base, 45PS motor just yet, but we have an inkling that it's worth spending the extra £1,000 on the 65PS motor, as fitted to the Spring we tested. It isn't then a big jump to the Extreme-trimmed car, which comes with a meaningful uplift in equipment yet still only costs £16,995. 

At this price, not anything from a mainstream brand you’ll have heard of. The Dacia Spring is cheaper even than the incoming Leapmotor T03, which will cost £15,995, but many might be put off by this Chinese brand being an unknown entity in the UK. 

The Hyundai Inster is a similar size, but goes much further on a charge and costs the best part of £8,000 more. The only electric vehicle cheaper than the Spring is the Citroen Ami, and it technically isn’t a car at all - it’s classified as a quadricycle, and will only do 28mph. From the same manufacturer, there's also the Citroen e-C3, but that costs £21,035 and up. The closely related Fiat Grande Panda is a smidge cheaper at £20,975.

Alternatively, you could get an unused, pre-registered small EV like the Vauxhall Corsa-E for around the same amount of money. It'll be less basic inside, more refined, better to drive, go further on a charge and be much safer. 

Petrol-powered city cars could also be considered rivals for the Dacia Spring. A Kia Picanto, for example, is roughly the same size and starts from £14,595. 

Only the Spring Extreme gets a touchscreen infotainment screen. It's worth upgrading to the Extreme just for this, as it's a decent size at 10.1-inches, and includes Android Auto/Apple CarPlay connectivity plus satellite navigation and two USB-C ports. We did have some minor bugs with the system on our test car, where it would gradually scroll through the list of available radio stations of its own accord, and very occasionally flicker on the left-hand side. 

The 'Media Control' unit on Expression-trimmed Springs just has the one USB port, although there is Bluetooth connectivity. Whichever version of the Spring you go for, don't expect a spectacular sound system - each only has three speakers. 

There's an abundance of cheaper-feeling plastics in the cabin of the Dacia Spring, particularly the trim piece around the handbrake, and the lining for the door pockets, which are also finished in white, so they're unlikely to look particularly great after a few miles. The steering wheel meanwhile is coated in tough plastic, feeling more like something out of a van than a passenger car. 

The overall finish of the cabin is fine, at least, and a lot of those plastics should prove hard-wearing over time. 

The 308-litre boot is bigger than you’ll find in a city car like the Volkswagen Up, and folding down the rear seats expands that to 1,004 litres. Accessing the boot could be easier, though - the electronic release can be a bit hit-and-miss. There's a certain knack to it where you have to start pulling the boot lid first, then hit the button.

The new Dacia Spring also has a 35-litre front stowage compartment under the bonnet. This is also known as a 'frunk' and is ideal for packing away the charging cables, although you will need to purchase a 'storage tray' as an accessory to use that space. The charge port itself is in the front grille, behind the Dacia logo.

As far as space in the rest of the cabin goes, the Dacia Spring does well for itself, despite still having the compromises of being based on a platform also used for combustion-powered cars. It's only a four-seater, but that's normal for a car of this size, and each of its occupants will have a decent amount of space and headroom. The door pockets are of a good size, and there's a fairly deep tray by the gear selector for storing things like phones or house keys. 

There's something vaguely representing a cupholder in each of the front door pockets, but we wouldn't be confident about storage a fresh hazelnut latte in there. You're better off buying one of the accessory cup holders that attaches to the versatile YouClip system, of which the Spring has two.

Around town, the Dacia Spring isn't so bad in terms of noise, but as soon as you get it beyond 40mph or so, it's a different story. There's a lot of wind and road noise, which could become tiring over a long drive. That said, because the Spring isn't really intended for drivers racking up a lot of miles, this isn't the end of the world.

There’s only one battery available in the Spring. It has a capacity of 26.8kWh, which is very modest by modern EV standards. There are plug-in-hybrids that have similar-sized and in some cases larger batteries. 

You get a choice of two different motor outputs. The entry-level ‘Electric 45’ motor makes - as implied by the name - just 45PS, little more than a classic Mini, while the ‘Electric 65’ motor is good for - you guessed it - 65PS. 

According to the WLTP cycle, the Dacia Spring can travel up to 140 miles on a full charge. That's not a particularly impressive number, particularly as it's a lab-obtained figure that doesn't reflect real-world driving very well. 

The Spring did well for itself during our test, though, averaging 3.9 miles despite us driving it at a cold time of year and taking it on several motorway/dual carriageway journeys which normally aren't flattering for EVs. This average would get you a range of just over 100 miles, so with a greater emphasis on the kind of urban driving the Spring is intended for and warmer conditions, over 120 should be possible. 

That's still a lot less than you'll manage in a Citroen e-C3, though. It has an official range of 199 miles, which should equate to comfortably over 150 miles in reality. But then again, the Spring is, as we've already said, a lot cheaper.

Being based on a car originally intended for emerging markets, it sadly isn't much of a surprise to see that the Dacia Spring has a poor Euro NCAP safety score. When tested in 2021, the car scored just one star, made up of a 49% score for adult occupants, 56% for child occupants and 32% for safety assistance features. It does poorly in terms of protecting any pedestrians unfortunate enough to get hit by it, with a 39% score for vulnerable road users.

The Euro NCAP report does at least note that the passenger compartment "remained stable" during the frontal offset test, but readings from crash-test dummies indicated poor protection for occupant's legs and hips. 

It is worth noting that the facelifted model sold in the UK does have lane-keeping assistance, which wasn't available on the Spring when it was tested in 2021. That said, we can't imagine its inclusion alone improving the overall star rating. Also on the safety technology front is automatic emergency braking (AEB) - which works only for other cars, not pedestrians - traffic sign recognition and a driver alertness monitor. 

Although it wouldn't change the safety rating either, better tyres would almost certainly make the Spring a safer car to drive. 

As such a new model for the UK, it's hard to tell how reliable the Spring will prove in time. That said, the Dacia brand has long performed well in the HonestJohn Satisfaction Index, finishing close second to Lexus in the most recent survey. 

It'll help the Spring's cause that EVs have far fewer moving parts than their combustion-powered counterparts. Plus, the warranty can be extended from the standard three years/60,000 miles to seven years/75,000 miles with the new Dacia Zen program so long as the car is serviced at Dacia dealers. 

Regardless of whether you do this, the battery has a separate warranty ensuring you'll have at least 75 per cent of the original capacity left in it after eight years or 75,000 miles. 

As with any car, the cost to insure a Dacia Spring will vary significantly depending on multiple factors including your age, driving experience and where the car is kept. Electric cars are generally a little more expensive to insure than petrol and diesel-powered equivalents, however, and that's reflected in Spring derivatives occupying groups 24 and 25. For comparison, the exclusively petrol-powered Kia Picanto occupies groups 3-10.

At the time of writing, the Spring was exempt from paying any Vehicle Excise Duty (VED), but that's due to change from April 2025. At that point, all EVs will be liable for a flat rate of £190 per year. 

The Spring has a simple trim structure consisting of two tiers. The entry point is Expression, equipment for which is basic, rear parking sensors, electric windows (for the front only) and manual air conditioning being about as snazzy as the spec list gets. 

The upgrade to Extreme spec could well be worth it, then, especially if you're already set on the Electric 65 Powertrain, which is the only option for the range-topping trim. The Extreme gets electrically adjustable door mirrors with a copper finish for the caps, electric windows in the rear as well as the front, a 10.1-inch touchscreen infotainment system, a rear parking camera and sensors front and rear, lane keep assist. 

The wheels are still of the steel variety, but at 15 inches in diameter they are an inch bigger than the Expression's, and they come with different trims. 

Alternatively, there's the Dacia Spring Cargo, billed as "the UK’s most affordable compact electric van". It's an N1 category commercial vehicle which removes the rear seats to give a 1,085-litre load bay that can accommodate payloads of up to 370kg. In terms of its standard equipment, it's broadly similar to the Electric 65 Extreme.