Dacia is about to pull off a neat little trick in the bargain-basement EV space—sell two electric city cars at the same time and make it look intentional.
In the coming months, the Renault-owned brand will unveil a new A-segment EV based on the upcoming electric Twingo, with a public debut locked in for the Paris motor show this September. It’ll hit European showrooms by year’s end with a targeted starting price below €18,000 (about £15,000), which already sounds like a mic drop in today’s inflation-happy EV market. But here’s the twist: the new car won’t immediately replace the Spring. Instead, Dacia plans to keep both on sale, making it the only automaker willing to hedge its city-EV bets so openly.
Think of it as the Clio-and-Sandero playbook, but electrified. The new entry-level EV borrows heavily from the Twingo’s bones, yet wears bespoke Dacia styling and undercuts its Renault cousin on price. Officially, it’s positioned as the Spring’s successor—but Dacia’s bosses are quick to point out that succession doesn’t necessarily mean eviction.
“They are still quite different,” said Dacia product chief Patrice Lévy-Bencheton, hinting that the distinction will be obvious once the car is revealed. Size and shape will do some of the differentiating work. At roughly 3.8 meters long and 1.7 meters wide, the new model will be slightly larger than the Spring and match the Twingo footprint. Design-wise, early previews suggest a radical shift, ditching city-car cuteness in favor of the chunky, pseudo-4×4 aesthetic that’s become a Dacia calling card.
That extra presence comes with a price bump. The new EV is expected to start around £15,000—roughly £3,000 more than the cheapest Spring. Even so, both cars will live in the same A-segment, aimed at urban buyers who care less about Nürburgring lap times and more about monthly payments.
According to Lévy-Bencheton, the overlap will last about a year, with the Spring being phased out market by market depending on incentives, regulations, and demand. Translation: Dacia will let customers vote with their wallets.
Sales and marketing boss Frank Marotte was even more blunt. The cars will sit at different price points, wear different designs, and then—shrug—“we’ll figure out what the customer will buy.” Refreshingly honest, that.
There’s also a geopolitical subplot here. The Spring is essentially a rebadged Renault City K-ZE, built in China and lightly adapted for Europe. That means it’s now subject to the EU’s hefty tariffs on Chinese-built EVs. The new model, by contrast, was designed in Europe for European buyers and will likely be built alongside the Twingo in Slovenia. No tariffs, better margins, fewer political headaches.
What makes this strategy particularly odd—in a good way—is the timing. Dacia has just given the Spring a significant refresh for 2026, despite it entering its seventh year on sale and staring down its so-called replacement. Power is up across both drivetrains, with the top version now delivering 101 horsepower. Charging speeds have improved. Suspension tweaks promise better handling. In short, Dacia addressed many of the Spring’s most common European complaints just months before introducing another car to steal its thunder.
Marotte admits it looks strange. Updating a car this late in its life cycle usually signals either desperation or indecision. But Dacia insists it’s about protecting residual values and keeping the Spring commercially relevant in an EV market that moves at smartphone speed.
“In the BEV world, if you want to sustain your residual values, you need to upgrade your product,” Marotte said. Fall behind on tech, and depreciation comes fast and hard. Dacia’s solution? Keep upgrading, even if the replacement is already waiting in the wings.
The result is an unusual but very on-brand strategy: maximum choice, minimum pretension, and prices that still feel like a rebuke to the rest of the industry. Two electric city cars, one showroom, and a sales team tasked with letting the market sort it out. In today’s EV landscape, that might be the most radical idea of all.
Source: Dacia