Dacia quickly develops a city electric car for €18,000 for Europe

Dacia has begun developing a new compact electric car for the European market. This was announced by Renault Group CEO Luca de Meo. The model will be the successor to the Dacia Spring, but unlike it, it will be produced in Europe rather than imported from China.

What is known

The new electric car will have much in common with the Renault Twingo. According to de Meo, the starting price will be less than €18,000, and bringing the model to market will take only 16 months. He noted that such short development times are unprecedented for the industry.

Although the price will remain at the current Spring level, the new model should significantly surpass it in terms of features, technologies, and capabilities. Instead of the outdated CMF-A platform, the electric vehicle will be built on the AmpR Small architecture — the same one used for the Renault 4 and Renault 5.

The project is being implemented as part of the Leap 100 initiative, which envisions a new car development cycle in 100 weeks. According to de Meo, the company has adopted 'Chinese-paced' work rates, thanks in part to the cooperation with a Chinese engineering company.

Cost reduction will also play a key role. It is expected that Twingo will be 40% cheaper to produce than the Renault 5, due to the reduction of components by about 30%. The entire car will consist of approximately 750 parts.

Source: Autocar