The Dacia Spring – Europe’s cheapest electric car – will be heavily restyled for 2024 to help it fend off competition from newer, European-designed affordable EVs. 

Based on the Chinese-market Renault Kwid K-ZE, the four-seat city car is “lacking a bit of modernity”, according to Dacia design boss David Durand, and it “needs to be reconsidered to express more of this electric trend”.

Durand said the updated Spring – expected to soon be confirmed for UK sales – won’t stray too far from the ethos of the current car, which has sold 120,000 units in Europe since its 2021 launch. 

“The general recipe of the Spring is a good one,” he said, as “you have a lot of [bumps] with other cars when you park. ‘City’ doesn’t mean safe environment.” 

He added: “We noticed that a lot of people in the far suburbs or even in the countryside have a Spring as a second car. It doesn’t mean that the Spring is going off road, but it’s not really a centre/urban car.” 

As a result, it is highly likely to remain a baby SUV with upright proportions and plastic protective body cladding but be brought closer in line with Dacia’s full-sized line-up by gaining new light signatures, wheel designs, colour options and trim elements.