Dacia moved the Spring to Europe, then gave its tiny battery 250 km of range

The new Dacia Spring is 18 centimetres wider, makes 80 horsepower and carries a European passport. It has not gained a huge battery. That restraint may be the most consequential part of Dacia's second-generation electric city car.

Revealed on 8 September, the clean-sheet Spring uses Renault Group's new RG-EV Small platform and will be assembled at Novo Mesto in Slovenia. Dacia says its 27.5 kWh usable LFP battery delivers up to 250 km on the WLTP combined cycle. The front motor produces 60 kW and 175 Nm, enough for 0-100 km/h in 12.1 seconds and a 130 km/h top speed.

Those are modest numbers in a market trained to applaud 100 kWh packs and three-second acceleration. They are also considerably more serious than the first Spring, a narrow, China-built adaptation whose compromises were obvious outside the city.

Dacia's case begins with how existing owners use the car. Connected-car data cited by the company puts the average daily distance at 34 km and the average speed at 34 km/h. Three quarters of charging happens at home. On that pattern, Dacia says most owners could charge the new car once a week.

The independent Slovenian motoring organisation AMZS got an early look at the car and drew a sharp distinction from the outgoing model. Its first impression described the old Spring as an inexpensive car rooted in a platform for India, with shortcomings that showed on the road. The new car, it reported, is fundamentally different and shares its basis with Renault's electric Twingo. AMZS also noted pre-series production was already under way at Revoz in Novo Mesto.

That matters beyond national pride. Moving production from China to Slovenia brings the Spring closer to European buyers and helps it fit subsidy systems that increasingly consider where and how a vehicle is made. Renault Group says more than 210,000 first-generation Springs have sold across over 40 countries since 2021. The sequel is the first of four battery-electric Dacias promised by 2030.

The standard onboard charger is 6.6 kW AC. Dacia quotes 15-80% in nine hours from a domestic socket, five hours 40 minutes from a heavy-duty socket and two hours 55 minutes from a 7 kW wallbox. An optional fast-charge pack adds an 11 kW AC charger and 50 kW DC capability. At a rapid charger, 15-80% is quoted at 28 minutes.

That 50 kW peak will look ancient beside today's triple-digit charging claims, but battery size changes the arithmetic. Adding 65% to a 27.5 kWh pack means accepting roughly 18 kWh. A driver is buying enough energy for local work, school and shopping trips, not trying to pour 80 kWh into a touring SUV.

The catch is that DC charging is optional. Buyers without a driveway should check the specification sheet carefully. A low purchase price is less persuasive if public charging is essential and the car arrives without the hardware to use it quickly.

What Car? and Electrifying both published walkarounds as the car was revealed. What Car? asked whether the Spring is still the cheapest EV worth buying. Electrifying asked whether cheap EVs are getting good. Those casual first looks are not instrumented road tests, but they sit with AMZS's view that this is more than a facelift.

Dacia has not yet supplied complete market-by-market pricing in its global release. Renault Group says the range stays below €20,000 before incentives. Italian reporting lists Expression from €17,900. Taxes, subsidy eligibility and standard equipment will decide what buyers actually pay. First deliveries are expected in early 2027.

The Spring's cleverness is not that it makes a 27.5 kWh battery behave like a 60 kWh one. It is that Dacia has used better aerodynamics, low mass and a platform built for compact EVs to avoid carrying twice the cells its stated owners rarely need. If the production car drives with the maturity promised at the preview, Europe's cheapest end of the EV market may finally have a purpose-built answer rather than a tolerated compromise.