Electric Vehicles: What have you spotted?

[Dormouse]

Just done a quick calculation from John's App screen shot and 17.3 KwH for £2.53 is 14.6 p/KwH. Shows just how interested he is in the nitty gritty. However, he has worked out his overall savings per month and it is substantial compared to his previous ICE BMWs.

[10mbc]

Unfortunately not my car, I wish it was

Ioniq 5 Luxury AWD. It drives like a dream.

[NewcastleFalcon]

Unfortunately not my car, I wish it was

Ioniq 5 Luxury AWD. It drives like a dream.

Alin, great to have an active correspondent from Romania. You may be able to give us some first hand views on Dacia's entry level EV the Dacia Spring.

As far as I can work out the Dacia Spring is the type and price range of car which would sell well in many countries, and is now being manufactured in Romania. Strange relationship with its parent Renault in that if production was to be accelerated to meet potential demand, it would well undercut Renault's offerings like the Twingo and the Zoe. Cant help feeling production of the Spring will be deliberately throttled back like VW Group did with the Skoda Citigo-e.

The Dacia Spring is a very different car to the Hyundai IoniQ 5 you posted, and a very different price but by far currently the cheapest EV in Europe (not not yet supplied to the UK). Is the headline in this article accurate. Can you get a new Dacia Spring in Romania for 7,700 Euros?

https://balkangreenenergynews.com/roman ... d%20beyond.

Regards Neil

[10mbc]

I only have a rushed photo of a Dacia Spring. At this time, it's basically impossible to go to the city center and not see a Dacia Spring. I think Cluj (the county in which Cluj-Napoca, where I live, is located) is the county with the highest count of Dacia Spring in Romania. Please note that Dacia spring is manufactured in China and not Romania. It's based on a Dongfeng electrical system and a Renault Kwid body, there is nothing Romanian about the car, maybe only the main market and the logo

In Romania, we have some incentives to buy new cars because we have a lot of old, polluting cars. The scheme is something like this:
1. Buy any new car that emits less than 140g of CO2/km and scrap an old one, get ~1500 euro incentive.
2a. If the car is hybrid (mild hybrid is hybrid for some reason here), you get an extra 700 euro incentive .
2b. If the car is using LPG, you get an extra 400 euro incentive.

2. Buy any electric car and you get a 9000 euro incentive. You can also claim the 1. incentive with the 1500 euro from above and the 2a. incentive from above and you gen a pretty good price.

*The maximum incentive is half of the purchase price of the vehicle.

So, if you would buy a Dacia Spring, you NEED to add CCS charging, a home charger and a paint option, you would pay about 9100 euro. So... you could have get the Spring for about 8000 euro in the beginning but I am not sure you would want that version.

About the car itself now:

I am part of the Facebook group that is centered around the Spring and I can see there are some issues. I will start with the good parts and continue with the bad ones:

The good:
-it's cheap, even for Romanians.
-it has good enough range for the city and maybe some commute
-it looks nice painted blue with orange mirrors
-it's electric so low running costs and low taxes

The bad:
-it charges really slow, even with CCS - while in the good weather the charging is acceptable, in the cold it might take you about 2 hours to fully charge.
-it does not have liquid cooling for the battery, so most likely the degradation will be not good. For sure the charging speeds are not good in the cold.
-it does not have a heat pump so, while it's cold outside, the range suffers a lot.
-it does not have heated mirrors - they were specified but none of the cars have them for some reason.
-it does not have a center ring on the rear wheels hub. You will center your wheels on the studs only.
-some later versions don't have rear interior handles
-it seems that you cannot start move if the gradient is higher that a specific grade. Some could not start after stopping on they way to a mountain resort.
-the ergonomics are bad - you need to put your hand through the steering wheel to access the button for the car's computer for the center display. You also need to be in N while you start your car, even if you step on the brake.


My thoughts
I think the Dacia Logan from back in 2004 was a big hit and, while the car was basic, it was a good car. The Spring is one car I would not buy in the current form. While the current LPG Dacia Logan / Sandero (sedan / hatchback) with some options and incentives you can get around 11000 Euro all taxes included, you do get a better car than Spring. Of course, I would still get the Hyundai I30 Highway at 15 000 euro, but that's a lot of extra money when you think about it, given that the average net monthly salary in Romania is 700 euro and the minimum is 310 euro.

The price of other EVs in Romania, all taxes and incentives included:
Renault Zoe 40: 17000 euro
Hyundai Ioniq Electric Exclusive (the classic one): 23000 euro
Ioniq 5 RWD Premium (the base version): 36000 euro
Nissan Leaf: 26000 euro
Peugeot 208 electric - 20 000 euro

[NewcastleFalcon]

Thanks Alin for another informative post. Back in 2020, Renault's made in China Dacia Spring raised a bit of anger from French Unions as this article outlines.

https://europe.autonews.com/automakers/ ... h-unionsck in 2020

The other article I found said "Romanian carmaker Dacia, part of the French Groupe Renault, has started the production of Dacia Spring, its first electric model." I misread that as Dacia have now started making it in Romania. Thanks for clearing that up.

regards Neil

[Dormouse]

Hi 10mbc. Is the Dacia Lodgy as popular in Romania as other parts of Europe?

[10mbc]

Hello! Dacia Lodgy is not that popular around here. The most popular is Dacia Logan (the sedan).

[myglaren]

Two almost identical Model Ss, one on the A167 and one parked in Birtley.
Walked over the A1M footbridge and looked for ten minutes, no Teslas or other electric cars passed by.

[NewcastleFalcon]

Polestar and BMW I3 down at Newcastle Racecourse today. BMW started up and moved off, you could hardly hear a sound, or smell a hydrocarbon, or a cloud of particulates. Saw a Renault something or other Diesel on the A19 which needed instant condemning. It was pouring out more black smoke than my K Reg Sierra Turbo Diesel in the 1990's.

REgards Neil

[thedudejudo]

I am looking forward to the Dacia Spring coming to market as soon as possible. In Serbia, we have subsidies for the purchase of EVs

[Dormouse]

Spotted this VW this morning. Read the sign.

[10mbc]

I am looking forward to the Dacia Spring coming to market as soon as possible. In Serbia, we have subsidies for the purchase of EVs

I would strogly suggest you drive test one before commiting to ordering one. It is not as good as the Sandero and the Logan. The price without incentives is about 18000 - 19000 euro, depending on the options.

[myglaren]

A lone Leaf among approximately 300 other cars. Looking rather sorry for itself.

[mickthemaverick]

2 candidates in our bird seed suppliers car park:

Own work - Kia Niro

Own work - Nissan Leaf

[myglaren]

A filthy Tesla S (drug dealer's car).
A VW golfy thing - passed rapidly but green flash gave it away.
Audi E-Tron.
Toyota hybrid x 2.

And some kind of Opel.