Dacia expands Spring series by more powerful model
Renault’s Dacia brand is giving its only electric model, the Spring, a more powerful drive combined with a new equipment line. The Spring Extreme Electric 65, which Dacia is presenting at the Brussels Motor Show now underway, gets a new electric motor with 48 kW of power.
Exclusively reserved for the new ‘Extreme’ trim level, the electric motor is coupled to a new gearbox “which increases the torque transmitted to the drive wheels and enables better acceleration and more effective recuperation”, as Dacia puts it. No further details were given.
Combined with the new Electric 65 engine (the code number refers to the power in horsepower), the Spring Extreme achieves a range of 220 kilometres in the WLTP mixed cycle and 305 kilometres in the WLTP city cycle. The entry-level Electric 45 engine with 33 kW output remains unchanged for the ‘Essential’ trim.
In the ‘Extreme 65’ trim, there is also a new paint finish called ‘Slate Blue’. In combination with this paint finish, copper-coloured accents are also installed on the roof rails, the exterior mirror housings, the wheel hubs, the Dacia logo on the tailgate and below the headlights. There are also patterns in the style of a topographical map on the front doors and decorative elements in the style of the vertical protectors with suggested air outlet between the doors and wings on the Duster. The topographical pattern is also found on the lower protective strips.
In France, the Dacia Spring Extreme Electric 65 starts at €22,300, while in Germany, orders for the vehicle start at list prices from €24,550. The Spring Essential Electric 45 will then be available from €22,750, while French customers will only be paying €20,800. The new ‘Extreme’ equipment replaces the Expression option package, which eight out of ten Spring buyers have opted for so far worldwide. The first deliveries of the Dacia Spring Extreme with the new Electric 65 engine are planned to take place before summer 2023.
Dacia justifies the fact that nothing has been changed on the battery with the data collected by the vehicle’s networked services. This has provided “valuable insights into how the vehicle really meets customers’ needs”. For example, the customers had driven an average of only 31 kilometres per day – and that too only at 26 km/h as an average value. Which is not surprising given the meagre DC charging power of 30 kW: 75 per cent of the Spring were charged at home.
“In less than 2 years, customers have made Spring one of the leaders in the electric vehicle market with more than 100,000 orders recorded since its launch. In 2022, Spring is expected to be on the European podium of the best-selling electric vehicles to private customers,” says Xavier Martinet, Senior Vice President Marketing, Sales & Operations at Dacia. “Often initially purchased as a household’s second car, Spring is the main means of transport during the week for 90% of multiple-vehicle households with a Spring.”
