Dacia Spring EV could be built in Europe

Dacia could consider bringing production of the Spring to Europe, as the cost advantage of building it in China and importing it becomes less obvious.

The Spring – Europe's third-best-selling electric car after the Tesla Model 3 and Y – has been heavily updated for 2024, and will finally be launched in the UK in right-hand-drive form later this year. It will continue to be built initially in Hubei, China, by Dongfeng Renault, but the firm is evaluating the possibility of building European cars locally.

The firm's sales and marketing boss Xavier Martinet told Autocar that building the European-market Spring in China "made sense at the time" it was launched in 2021, because that was "where the ecosystem was" and so it "reduced the risk of investment".

He said the ability to build cheaply in China has been crucial to the Spring's positioning as the cheapest full-sized electric car in Europe, but wondered "how long will this advantage continue?".

"Assembling in China is what has made a success of the car so far, and we'll see how long this is the reality," he said. "The market is changing a lot: regulations are coming in as well – plus we have a bonus in terms of incentives and stuff like that, so it does somewhat change the equation a little bit, and we have to adapt to that."

Martinet also cited the evolution of Europe's battery manufacturing industry as a potential facilitator of local Spring production, and highlighted that as parent company Renault increases the number of EVs it builds in Europe, there could be production efficiencies from which Dacia could benefit.

"There is this complementarity of offers within the group, which enables us to take some decisions which do make sense," he said.

The Spring is not based on the same CMF architecture that will underpin each of Renault's European EVs, so it is unlikely that it can slot into an existing production line - and Martinet stopped short of naming any potential locations.

Dacia has its own European factory in Pitesti, Romania, but has not yet given any indication of plans to build electric cars there.

Importantly, Dacia remains committed to the Spring's value billing, and would avoid incurring any significant increase in production costs so as not to threaten its list price.

Martinet said: "We don't want to deviate from this positioning - it's what makes the success of Dacia today: to be the best value proposition in every segment that we compete in."

Dacia Spring facelift: Everything you need to know

The Spring will finally head to UK dealers in the coming months to become the nation’s cheapest electric car, following a substantial overhaul inside and out aimed at sustaining strong European sales volumes.

The Spring was originally introduced in Europe in 2021 as a rebadged version of the Chinese-market Renault City K-ZE. Its low launch price of just €16,800 (£14,385 at today’s exchange rate) meant it quickly rose up the EV sales charts, and three years on, 140,000 Springs have been bought on the continent.

However, the original Spring was not imported to the UK – partly because it was “lacking a bit of modernity”, in the words of Dacia design chief David Durand.

Now, though, it has been heavily updated to rectify that, with major improvements to interior quality and connectivity, and it is due to hit the market imminently, priced from just above £17,000.

Inside, the outgoing car’s curved dashboard and piano black finish have been replaced by a more modern, rugged design in line with the new Duster.