► Dacia confirms a new small EV
► New model will developed in 16 months
► Plans to sell new car for under £15k
Renault Group boss Luca de Meo has confirmed that Dacia is developing a new ‘A-segment’ electric car at the group’s 2024 financial results press conference. And we’ve now received the above official design sketch.
‘It will be an A-segment EV made in Europe, and we will develop it in 16 months,’ says de Meo, while reminding everyone that the new Renault Twingo took only 21 months to develop. ‘I would defy any competitor to do that,’ he added, ‘including the Chinese.’
De Meo also went on record with the pricing ambitions for the new small Dacia EV, declaring that the brand intends to ‘sell the car below €18,000.’ That’s less than £15k at current exchange rates. And we thought the sub-£17,000 Twingo was ambitious.
This was the first announcement of the new model, and no further details are yet available. However, a teaser image of a car under a Dacia-branded cloth (below) was shown on screen during the press conference, showing similar proportions to the latest Twingo.
It would make sense if the Twingo and this new Dacia model were fundamentally similar under the skin. Particularly given both vehicles are being developed by Renault’s specialist EV department, Ampere.
Meanwhile, there’s been no announcement or confirmation about how this affects the brand’s existing small and cheap EV, the Dacia Spring. With any luck, this new model represents the end of that, as de Meo says the Renault Group is now ‘going one step further in terms of EV mobility.’
The news comes as Dacia continues to expand its model line-up. The brand has recently launched the Bigster, its biggest car yet, and will launch two more cars in the competitive C-segment.
We’ll find out more about this new small electric car in the months to come.