Little Dacia Goes Big With New Spring & Hipster Models

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Dacia, a part of Renault Group, is to automobiles what Lambrusco is to wine — cheap and effective. There is a place in the world for inexpensive vehicles that get us from Point A to Point B and back again reliably. For Americans, the Toyota Tercel, Ford Fiesta, or Chevy Chevette might be the best examples.

But Dacia knows who it is and plays the part it has been given perfectly. This week, it announced a major upgrade to the battery-electric Spring and a funky, “what the heck is that?” new model called the Hipster Concept.

Dacia Spring Upgraded

Top Gear reports the Dacia Spring has received a number of small upgrades that add up to a major improvement. Those upgrades begin with new electric motors. Until now, the Dacia Spring offered a choice of a 44 or 64 hp motor. Now the choice is either a 69 or 99 hp motor. Previously, the Dacia Spring with the smaller motor needed nearly 20 seconds to hit 100 km/h, but now that time has dropped to a skoosh over 12 seconds. With the more powerful motor, 0 to 100 km/h now comes up in 9.6 seconds.

Some readers may snicker up their sleeve about such leisurely performance, but many of us came of age when any car that could go 0 to 60 mph in under 10 seconds was considered fast. We have been spoiled by electric cars that can do it in less than half the time, but such performance comes with a cost in the form of higher sticker prices. “This means that Spring can travel with ease in less urban areas and fit naturally into motorway traffic for a more comfortable driving experience,” Dacia said in a press statement.

Another big improvement is a new 24.3 kWh battery that uses LFP chemistry — a first for a battery-electric car from Renault Group. Although no pricing information has been released as of yet, at the very least we expect the lower cost of LFP batteries will help pay for the cost of the other upgrades and leave the asking price mostly unchanged.

Other improvements include an anti-roll bar, newly calibrated dampers and springs, new fairings that reduce aerodynamic turbulence beneath the car, and a new spoiler. These add to the modifications Dacia made last year — retuned power steering, 15-inch wheels, and a new steering wheel.

While the range of the updated car is the same as before at 140 miles, the top tier Extreme trim can now be charged with up to 40 kW from a DC fast charger, as compared to 30 kW in the previous car. A 20 to 80% charge now takes 29 minutes. There is also a 7 kW AC charger on board that shaves 40 minutes off the time needed to charge from 20 to 100%. One of the advantages of LFP batteries is that they are more tolerant of being fully charged on a regular basis.

Meet The Dacia Hipster

And now for something completely different. Dacia this week took the wraps off what it calls the Hipster Concept, which it describes as “an alternative vision of electric mobility: ultra-affordable, ultra-essential.” In a press release, the company said,

“Since the beginning of the 21st century, the automotive market has evolved – particularly under the impact of regulation and electrification – towards cars that are ever larger, ever heavier, ever more sophisticated… and therefore ever more expensive. In this environment that pushes for ‘more and more’, Dacia has been pursuing its goal with determination and success for two decades — to enable as many people as possible to access essential mobility.”

Some readers may recall another car from a French manufacturer that focused on extreme practicality over style — the Citroen Deux Chevaux. It was ugly and slow but superbly crafted for what people in France needed in the post-war era — a vehicle that was tough and reliable and able to handle the war-torn roads left after WWII ended.

Now Dacia is asking what people will need in the world of tomorrow and how it can make electric mobility accessible to as many people as possible. The company wants nothing less than a new “people’s car” — a vehicle for the masses that does today what the Volkswagen Beetle did nearly a century ago.

“This is the most Dacia-esque project I have ever worked on. It has the same societal impact as the Logan did 20 years ago. And it involves inventing something that does not exist today,” said Romain Gauvin, who is the head of advanced design at Dacia. “Our ambition in reinventing the true people’s car was to give it a distinctive and memorable design. A car that can be sketched in three strokes of a pencil.”

To design the Hipster Concept, the Dacia teams started with the needs of users and how they use their cars in real life. In short, they focused on the essentials, the company says. “The Dacia Hipster Concept — it has everything you could want in an everyday vehicle, measuring just 3 meters long, 1.53 meters high and 1.55 meters wide. Four proper seats and a boot that can be adjusted from 70 to 500 liters,” said Stéphanie Chiron, the manager for Dacia advanced product planning.

“The Dacia Hipster Concept takes Dacia’s weight-driven approach even further. It is 20% lighter than Spring…less weight means less raw materials and less energy used in manufacturing. It also means less mass to move, so less energy is consumed. The ambition behind the Dacia Hipster Concept is to halve the carbon footprint over the entire life cycle of the vehicle compared with the best electric vehicles currently available.”

In France, where the average car is driven less than 40 kilometers a day, the Hipster Concept will be able to meet the daily driving needs of most people with just two charging sessions a week. The Hipster Concept is purposely intended to bring affordable electric mobility to those who are priced out of the new car market today.

The Dacia Hipster Concept stands out because of its simple and robust design, which resembles a block with a wheel at each corner, leaving no overhang at either end of the car. Like the Ford Model T, the exterior of the car is one color. The only painted pieces are at the front and the two door entry elements.

The Dacia Hipster Concept is all about simplicity. The exterior door handles have been replaced by a strap, which is lighter, less expensive and just as practical, the company claims . [Tesla: take note!] The interior closely follows the very cubic shapes of the bodywork, particularly with very vertical windows and windscreen. A glass panel in the roof makes the interior feel more spacious. To reduce costs and weight, the side windows slide instead of rolling down. Fans of early British sports cars may remember side curtains that had a similar feature.

The interior is fitted with only the bare essentials as standard, but can be customized using a range of accessories developed by Dacia. There are 11 accessory anchor points distributed across the dashboard, door panels and boot interior that can accommodate various accessories, such as cup holders, armrests, and ceiling lights. If you think the single body color and lack of interior appointments sound like what Slate is doing with its upcoming electric truck in the US, you’re not wrong.

Dacia’s BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) philosophy enables seamless connectivity between smartphones and vehicles. The smartphone even becomes a digital key to unlock and start the car. Once the driver is seated, the smartphone, placed in its docking station, acts as a multimedia screen and displays the preferred navigation app. It also serves as the vehicle’s audio system, connected to a portable Bluetooth speaker that is compatible with the YouClip mounting points in the interior.

Is the Hipster a real car or a PR gimmick? Electrive offers this take: “Essentially, the cube-shaped small car is a European interpretation of the kei cars popular in Japan, which are also extremely compact yet surprisingly spacious. Interestingly, John Elkann, chairman of the supervisory board of Stellantis, recently emphasized in an interview the need for kei — like concepts to ensure affordable individual mobility in Europe in the electric age.

“Elkann has mused about the creation of a new vehicle class for small and affordable electric vehicles. Renault itself is also calling for the EU regulations for small electric cars to be slimmed down, as the high requirements keep new car prices comparatively high.”

Safety is, of course, is of paramount concern. How would a Hipster fare in a collision with a much heavier battery-electric SUV, for instance? Dacia has thought about that and developed a new material it calls Starkle, which is partly derived from recycled materials and used to provide enhanced side impact protection. The car also has dual airbags for the front seat passengers.

The Hipster is a homely looking thing, but no more so than the Deux Chevaux or any number of Ami models from Citroen. In fact, much of the concept appears to be scaled down from the Citroen Oli that debuted a few years back. It also looks a bit like the compact Telo electric pickup truck that is under development. The Hipster may not play in Peoria, but it very well might in Annecy.

If this car goes on sale, it will be interesting to find out what the reaction of the buying public might be. If the price is low enough, there could be a surprising amount of demand for this “one size fits all” vehicle.