2023-06-20 11:10:11
Dacia’s marketing is relentless, the Spring is the cheapest electric city car on the market. In the catalogue, it is initially displayed at €20,800 but drops to €15,800 once the CO2 bonus of €5,000 has been deducted. It’s unbeatable, but you can imagine that at this price there can be no miracle, the medal on the other hand.
Not so much on the side of the autonomy, which is amply sufficient for urban use, but rather on the side of the services. Our various tests indeed remind us that the Chinese origins (Renault City K-ZE) of the little Romanian move it away from European standards. And if a second generation of Spring is indeed planned for 2024, nothing says that the progress will be obvious. So wouldn’t there be another solution for Dacia?
An easy-to-transform Zoé?
Would a Dacia Zoé Stepway be born inexpensively?© Didier RIC
Within the Renault group, the future of electric city cars will be ensured by the R5 and 4L doublet, against a background of retro design. This means that the valiant Zoé, who paved the way in 2012, will bow out. It is to her that Dacia could precisely think to make a good Spring in Europe. From an aesthetic point of view, there wouldn’t be a lot of work needed to give the Zoé a third life after the 2017 restyling. A “makeover” that we have just imagined for you. It would be enough to change the muzzle, shock absorbers a little longer in order to raise the ground clearance, adorn its body with a backpacker’s fittings and repaint the rims like the mirror shells in black in order to integrate this “Zoé Stepway” in the Dacia range.
On the technical side, the Zoé remains perfectly up to date, despite the absurd ratings from EuroNCAP during its last visit. Road holding, braking, comfort, lighting, finish, habitability, everything is much better on board the Zoé despite its age. Including the autonomy, which is however logical given a battery with a capacity almost twice that of the Spring.
The price would soar
However, this recycling would not be so simple. Because to be profitable, the Zoé is now sold for €35,100 before the CO2 bonus of €5,000. Admitting that Dacia uses a less expensive battery – the accumulator of an electric car accounts for 40% of the final price -, even if it means degrading the autonomy a little, it is almost impossible to close the €15,000 gap with the current Spring. Because electronic control instruments as well as digital displays must also be part of it. You will have understood that it is not by removing the electric window lifters and affixing gray plastic shields that it will be possible to make substantial savings.
The future Volkswagen ID.1 (illustration) has already been announced at €20,000.© Didier Ric/L’Automobile Magazine
Therefore, for the Romanian cost breaker, the shift to electric may well change the situation, we will have to solve a new economic equation. A new challenge! On his side, the Volkswagen Group is already talking about a future trendy city car, it should be the ID.1, sold around €20,000 while the R5 should start a little above this symbolic bar. Breaking the price of electrified cars, this is perhaps the toughest mission for Dacia in the years to come.
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