Renault’s Budget EV Strategy Gets a Major Upgrade With the New Dacia Spring

Dacia is taking another shot at making electric cars affordable, but this time with a major change: its new Spring EV will be built in Europe rather than imported from China.

The second-generation Dacia Spring is being produced at Renault Group’s plant in Novo Mesto, Slovenia, as the automaker looks to keep one of Europe’s most affordable electric cars competitive in a market increasingly shaped by Chinese EVs, tariffs and government incentives.

The move comes after more than 210,000 Spring EVs were sold across more than 40 countries since its 2021 launch. Dacia says the new model is designed around what it learned from those customers, who typically use the vehicle for relatively short daily journeys rather than long-distance travel.

The new Spring is based on Renault Group’s RGEV Small platform and gets a larger, more practical cabin while retaining a compact footprint. It is powered by an 80-horsepower electric motor and a 27.5-kWh LFP battery, giving it up to 250 km of WLTP range.

Charging has also received an upgrade. Depending on the configuration, the Spring can support 50-kW DC fast charging, taking the battery from 15% to 80% in about 28 minutes.

Dacia is keeping the central selling point intact: price. The entire new Spring range is positioned below €20,000 before government incentives, although the European-built version starts at around €17,900 in some markets. Deliveries are expected to begin in early 2027.

The European production decision could prove just as important as the car itself. The previous Spring was built in China, which meant it was excluded from some European incentives, including France’s EV subsidy scheme. Building the new version in Slovenia gives Dacia a better shot at qualifying for local incentives while reducing its exposure to tariffs on Chinese-made EVs.

Dacia is also positioning the Spring as the first major step in a broader electric push, with the brand targeting four fully electric models by 2030.

The bigger story is that Europe’s affordable EV battle is changing. Instead of simply trying to match Chinese manufacturers on price, Dacia is attempting to combine low-cost engineering with European production and access to local incentives.

That could make the new Spring one of the more important budget EVs to watch as European automakers fight to keep affordable electric cars from becoming a market dominated by Chinese brands.