Dacia Spring provides a new entry-level route into battery-powered motoring, writes James Stinson
After a particularly strong couple of years, sales of electric cars have taken a dip in recent months. Sales of EVs in the UK in December were 34% lower than the year before. Despite a raft of new and better battery-powered cars hitting the market, fully electric cars still account for fewer than one-in-five new cars sold. However, this plateauing of demand was to be expected and can be explained according to the technology adoption curve.
This clever piece of thinking was developed by American academic Everett Rogers as a way of explaining how, why, and the rate at which an innovation spreads. Rogers divided society up into five categories: Innovators, Early Adopters, Early Majority, Late Majority and Laggards. In simple terms, Innovators and Early Adopters drive the takeup of new technologies in the early stages. They tend to be younger, more tech savvy, financially better off and more prepared to take risks. However, they account for a relatively small portion of the overall population.
The majority fall into the other three categories. These, to varying degrees, are much slower at taking up new technologies. Their reticence can be for a number of reasons but in electric car terms, broadly centres on concerns about range, cost and charging infrastructure. We’ve come a very long way on all these fronts, especially in the last few years but these disappointing sales figures show we’ve still some way to go to persuade the Early Majority and Late Majority adopters into the fold. When it comes to buyers’ concerns, price likely remains the biggest impediment for those thinking about making the switch to electric. Much store is being put in the new Renault 5 and VW I.D 2, which are due to go on sale over the next year at less than £25,000. That still seems hard to get excited about. But what about this new Dacia Spring?
At a time when car prices have been going through the roof, the Renaultowned Romania-based carmaker has stood out for its good value fare. So maybe it’s Dacia that is going to win over some of those Early and Late Majority adopters to the electric cause. Prices for this new Spring model start from £14,995, which compares very favourably to rivals like the MG4 (£26,495), Fiat 500 Electric (£28,195) or the Citroen e-C3 (around £23,000). However, to get that super low entry-level price, compromises have had to be made. In the UK, it’s being offered with two power outputs, either 44bhp or 64bhp, both with a top speed of just 78mph. 0-62mph will take 19.1 seconds with the former, and 14.0 seconds with the latter. It’s comes with quite a small battery too – just 26.8 kWh, which has an official range of just 137 miles. That’s more than some but much less than most of its, admittedly, far pricier rivals.
A charging port hidden behind the front badge allows the Spring to use a 7kW wallbox home charger, which means a 20-80% top-up takes around four hours. Three trim levels will be offered in the UK, with the entry-level Essential trim giving you 14 inch wheels, a 7.0 inch digital driver’s display, a dashboard clip (for mounting your smartphone), remote central locking, electric front windows and rear parking sensors as standard.
Expression trim is the next level up, and adds manual air conditioning and 15 inch wheels. At the top of the range sits Extreme, which includes copper interior and exterior finishes, electrically adjustable door mirrors, electric rear windows, a 10.0 inch infotainment screen (with wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay), two USB ports and V2L charging. It’s a good-looking car, with an airy and spacious interior while the cabin finish majors on functionality over refinement. Prices range from £14,995 to £16,995, with orders being taken now for first deliveries starting in late autumn. For potential electric converts, the new Spring is well suited as a second car, used mainly around town. But if you remain on the Late Majority end of Rogers’ technology adoption curve, you’d probably be happier with Dacia’s excellent petrol-powered Sandero, which offers a good bit more flexibility, space and refinement for a similar price.