Dacia Spring
The Dacia Spring has been an instant success in Italy because it is one of the most affordable full-electric vehicles on the market as the Renault Group subsidiary looks to appeal to both eco- and cost-conscious buyers.
At a starting price of 20,650 euros in Italy, it is about 4,000 euros less than the Fiat New 500, which was the country’s best-selling EV last year.
I recently had the chance to test the China-made minicar for a week.
The Spring has typical minicar dimensions: 3,734 mm long, 1,579 mm wide and 1,516 mm tall. What was unexpected is that the Spring, at 950 kg, is 30 kg lighter than Italy’s longtime best-seller, the Fiat Panda minicar. As a result, the Spring offers surprisingly brisk acceleration for a car powered by a small 33 kilowatt electric motor.
However, at speeds above 50 kph (31 mph) and with the Spring’s ECO mode is on the performance is more sluggish but reasonable as long as the cars if not full of people or things. Anyone who drives the car in a hilly town would need to switch off the ECO mode often.
Dacia last year delivered 27,563 units of the Spring in Europe, according to Dataforce. That included 5,500 Springs in Italy, according to importer association, UNRAE. The Spring was Italy’s No. 4 selling EV after the Fiat New 500, Smart ForTwo and Renault Twingo despite only being on available for half of last year. In January, the Spring was the top-selling EV in the country, which hasn't decided yet when to renew incentives to purchase electric cars in 2022.
The Spring’s steering is responsive but not always precise and the brakes are spongy.
The interior is extremely spartan. The steering wheel is not adjustable, there are no touchscreens just buttons and switches that make a cracking sound when used rather than a click. Because it has few driver assistance systems, the Spring earned just one out of a possible five stars from EuroNCAP.
How does the Spring perform outside the city? It can reach 100 kph (62 mph) quite easily, and at that speed it is quieter than a comparable combustion-driven car.
Mind the range
Its official WLTP range estimates at a full charge are 230 km for mixed highway and city driving and 305 km in the city. Winter’s cold temperatures further reduce range in most EVs so I feared I wouldn’t be able to make the 180-km roundtrip from Milan to Lake Maggiore and back without recharging.
I did some research on Dacia website where I found a very useful page on how the Spring’s range varies. I learned that if I traveled at 90 kph at a temperature of 5 degrees Celsius a full charge would last for a meager 107 km. At the same speed at 20 C range was forecast to jump to 189 km.
Actual conditions were 10 to 15 C. I drove at 100 kph most of the way and burned 50 percent of the charge, leaving me at 89 km of range.
An estimation of a 180 km range in these conditions is not far from real, and it was confirmed by the return trip.
In city driving the Spring can quite easily travel more than 200 km with a full charge, helped by the car’s regeneration braking.
At the relatively slow 6.7-kilowatt-hour pace of the AC charger, it took me 2 hours and 15 minutes to add 15.73 kWh and bring the charge to 94 percent from 38 percent.
The model I tested was not equipped with the option to use DC recharging, which would get the battery back to 80 percent charge in less than an hour.
Recharging challenges
Living for one week with a full-electric car also allowed me to check the state of the recharging infrastructure in Italy, which I first described last year.
Not much has changed. Recharging an electric vehicle here is always interesting and can sometimes turn into a sort of treasure hunt.
In Italy, it's common to find a non-EV blocking an EV charging point.
It's possible to find a station with two charging points that are both occupied by combustion cars.
Sometimes a state-of-the-art supercharger sits for six months waiting to be connected to the power grid.
Moreover, the network is still very patchy outside big cities. Stresa, the destination of my recent Sunday drive, is one of the most fashionable tourist spots on the Lake Maggiore, visited by British, German and Swiss tourists since the 19th century.
Some high-end hotels provide private charging stations, and there is a Tesla supercharger, but the only public station was installed in 2019 but is still not working. There is one alternative, which is couple of miles uphill.
