Spring is unrecognizable.
The city car from the Romanian manufacturer Dacia, which has democratized access to electric propulsion, is undergoing a serious makeover to preserve its capital of seduction undermined by headwinds.
Between the planned arrival of new models armed with an ultra-competitive price and the implementation of the environmental score, the Spring no longer has a boulevard in front of it.
At the end of last year, France decided to put in place a system aimed at making the purchase of cars produced in China less advantageous.
La Spring thus found itself excluded from the ecological bonus.
Dacia
The response did not take long.
Dacia's electric city car is back on the table for cosmetic surgery.
By converting to the new formal language of the Romanian firm marked by Y-shaped headlights, a new refined grille and at the rear a black strip connecting very modern lights which are inspired by those of the new Duster, the Spring offers itself a new youth.
The designers took advantage of this profound facelift to lighten the style by removing the roof bars and dressing the front and rear bumpers with decorative stickers which are easily replaced.
A unique dashboard
Dacia
The treatment of the passenger compartment brings the Spring into modernity.
The dashboard has been completely remodeled and accommodates customizable digital instrumentation on a 7-inch screen inserted in a white cap.
Most functions, with the exception of heating and air conditioning controls, are grouped into a 10-inch central multimedia tablet.
Dacia also took advantage of these modifications to increase storage capacities with a double glove box and door bins.
The volume now flirts with 33 liters.
Under the front hood, the Spring can also accommodate a 35-liter bin to install charging cables, for example.
In line with the tightening of European safety standards, the new Spring now includes automatic emergency braking (urban/suburban with vehicle, pedestrian, cyclist and motorcycle detection), traffic sign recognition with overspeed alert, rear parking assist, emergency stop signal, lane change alert, lane keeping assist, driver attention monitoring system and emergency call (eCall ).
Dacia
The Spring range is still based around the two 45 and 65 hp engines, but the latter is now available from the new Expression intermediate finish.
These engines are always associated with a 26.8 kWh battery.
To further optimize the 220 km range, engineers have equipped their city car with regenerative braking accessible by activating mode B from the transmission control.
Note that as an option, the Spring can receive a 30 kW direct current charger allowing you to go from 20 to 80% charge in 45 minutes.
Much improved, the Spring also features bi-directional V2L charging allowing it to power a household electrical appliance.
Finally, it will also be possible to program your charging times.