cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/56521103
The all-electric Dacia Spring now starts at just €11,900
Most of the people in this post complaining about the range obviously aren’t EV owners. I’ve just done a multi-country road trip covering thousands of km. Taking a 20 minute break every few hours is hardly arduous, you’d be doing something similar on your own anyway.
Dacia Spring product website (DE)
To take advantage of the full €5,000 off, buyers must sign a purchase or lease agreement by February 28. On top of that, the car needs to be registered no later than June 30.
Sounds like a clear out to make room for new stock.
There are a lot of reasons that wouldn’t fly in the US:
- too tiny compared to the behemoths around. I’d be afraid
- doesn’t say speed but a lot of “city” cars have city speed limits: most people use high speed roads at least some of the time
- as average new car prices pass $50k, maybe people are less likely to have multiple cars than in the past
- legacy manufacturers only build smaller runs of higher profit trims, and have successfully bought protection from competition
When I was married, I did always have a small cheap commuter car, like a Civic, and ensure my ex had the big car that’s also More comfortable on road trips. But I’m no longer married so can’t justify multiple cars. My one car does need to serve the occasional road trip, so I’m more comfortable with my current 300+ mile range.
But there continue to be more full sized pickups on the road and those are what I notice with worse and worse driving.truck guys used to have pride in their driving skills but now they’re some of the worst and just seem arrogant that “I’m bigger than you so can do what I want”. I don’t even think I’d feel safe in my civic anymore and certainly not my old Miata , much less something smaller.
I’m really fascinated by the Slate truck’s simple and modular concept. If that succeeds I’ll be tempted to get that as a second car even with its limited range - it would add capability, a spare resource, and range is plenty for commuting
as average new car prices pass $50k, maybe people are less likely to have multiple cars than in the past
You’re quoting this on a car selling for about $15k?
Speed limit is > 70mph.
The city car only models tend to be technically quadricycles. This is a proper car.
I don’t know why people are saying a 200km range is bad. Most people I know don’t drive more than 25km to work per day. Surely even 100km is perfectly fine for a daily driver.
My brother had an 80km range car for years and was perfectly fine.
Is it just that it’s not competitive at this price?
Because propaganda has convinced people that a car is useless if it can’t go 300+mi AND only take a few minutes to be ready to do it again. Range anxiety, even though they only fill up maybe once a week and could easily charge an ev at home with just a standard outlet not even a special charger and keep up with their actual real daily use
The whole entire point of a car is long road trips though. Especially in Europe, you want to live as close to your job as possible.
In North America, the point is to be your main method of transportation. Work, groceries, friends, all require cars to get there in a reasonable time frame. Yes there are longer trips, and personally I would not feel comfortable with a 200km max range, because the nearest large towns are upwards of that already. But for those that rarely leave their cities, you could make it work, especially if your spouse had a gas / longer range car. Seems fine for a city car.
(still upvoted you because NA-centric discussion gets old)
Exactly, most people just go to work, Kaufland and to visit grandma who most of the time is 100km away. You’re not buying a Dacia Spring to go from Lisbon to Oslo, you’re buying it as a car for daily use.
Thank you for considering Lisbon in your thoughts. It’s very appreciated.
It’s a really low price, but it’s also an incredibly shitty car with terrible safety scores.
It’s a rebadged Dongfeng EV.
False, it’s made in China, but from Renault itself as Renault kze
And terrible range. Advertises 300Km per charge. You’re lucky if you get 200
Not everyone lives in the US. In Germany, 70% of all distances traveled by car are only 10 kilometers or less.
200 km range in the summer means 100 km in the winter. i live in finland and i frequently need to drive 100+km away from home. nearest ikea is 130 km away, relatives living in other cities, etc. i imagine it’s the same for a lot of people, not just in the US.
US still just averages 65 kilometers per day.
Don’t assume everyone replying in a way you don’t agree with lives in the US. I am speaking from experience living in the Luxembourg/Germany area…
Even Germans take vacation to visit relatives and vacation homes. A range like that easily doubles a 200Km drive’s travel time.
It’s good if you don’t long-distance travel by car, or if you use it as a secondary car for work commutes. Then it’s perfect.
I knew that this argument would be the second possibility. German Reichweitenangst is strong with you, too it seems.
Hilarious.If there was any European who is closest to the American car ethos, it’s got to be the Germans. Those autobahns, man. :)
Trust me, Luxembourgers are worse. Germans have decent public transport in their metropolitan areas. Luxembourg otoh is more like US suburbia.
I mean, that’s pretty on par for other manufacturers, rule of thumb is about half of rated range during winter. It’s not really the manufactures fault that part, the WLTP standard they have to use is just using a way too high percentage of steady-speed city driving to give a good idea of real-world usage for most people.
I‘m not a car guy but I would like to add it also looks absolutely awful. Like so many cars from recent years.
So, a Dacia?
deleted by creator
Ever since Dacia was bought by Renault, it’s being marketed heavily throughout the EU :D foarte bun!
I’ve never noticed rhe brand before but in the last year or 2 I see a lot, really a lot of Dacias around here too (portugal).
In the UK too
No no, the line is
🇷🇴🎉🎇ROMANIA MENTIONED 🎆✨🇷🇴I didn’t even know Dacia was its own brand before Renault got it!
I’d love to know how you pronounce it though - specifically the ‘C’. Do you (i.e. Romanians) pronounce it like an S or a K or something else??
I think it should be a CH, like cheese. Not Romanian, just how I’ve heard it pronounced.
deleted by creator
Ah ok that’s one I’d heard (the other being Day-see-ah like the other guy said). Glad to have it cleared up, thanks!
Here in the UK when the brand first appeared the press were saying it like Day-sea-er, but it fairly quickly changed to Dah-cha (like the start of satchel) and has stayed that way.
That pronunciation took off because Top Gear was going to record a segment about Dacia before they hit the UK market.
Top Gear did reach out to Dacia and ask how it was pronounced, but Dacia took so long replying to the email that by the time they did, Top Gear had already filmed it saying Day-see-er. It was too late.
And because of the enormous reach of Top Gear at the time, that pronunciation became solidified in people’s minds.
Or at least this was the story told by Richard Porter, the ex Top Gear producer, on his podcast.
Looks like a little, simple car that’s great for city use. The range isn’t too bad for day to day use. It’s probably only a viable option in European cities though
Why? How long is a commute in the US? In Canada even a long commute that isn’t some special circumstance would be ~30km and this thing has lots of range for that.
30 km is long?!
I commute 14 km on the bike in Munich. (When the weather is not really icy).
Even when I live in the suburban sprawl of Ottawa the only reason any trip would be more than 30km was because I’m actually from a village outside of it/right on the edge. Here in Montréal a commute someone would consider to be far would be 11km. Hell, when I go back home that’s only 170km so on a full charge I’d be fine even for that.
The only reason a commute would be more than 30km in North America is if you lived in a place with exceptionally poor planning(common, but not the only option). Inside most any city a car with a 200km range would get you around so easily, and while some guy in Montana might potentially struggle there’d still be a massive customer base on the continent for these vehicles.
I had a pretty rough 1 hour/60 mile (97 km) commute for two years, but most of my commutes before and since have been around about 30 min/25 miles (40 km). Plenty of people around me commute into the city, and that’s about a 50 mile (80 km) commute. With a range of 140 miles (225 km), it would really limit your ability to do much else on a work day, without a public charge anyways.
Just a few data points from one person… But the US is VERY car-brained, very big, and VERY spread out, so I believe this is pretty common. And while a lot of our land is inhospitable like Canada’s, it’s easier to deal with super hot than super cold so people are literally everywhere, while Canada’s population of course hugs a narrow strip of the southern border. We went to visit my family for Christmas, only 3 states away, but we drove 1200 miles (1930 km) to get there.
The other things to consider are the 19 second 0-60/0-100 speed, and the top speed of 78 mph/125 kph. A lot of our commuting is at high speed on freeways from suburbs to urbs. The slow acceleration could be a liability on super tight freeway ramps and just generally at high speeds in traffic. And it’s incapable of going the posted speed limit of 80-85 mph (129-137 kph) that we have in some jurisdictions. Freeways that fast are uncommon and most do top out at 65-75 mph (105-120 kph), but I have a feeling that needing to push the car to its absolute limits could be dangerous.
I sympathize, but a LOT of people don’t suffer from that in the US or Canada. How many cars in NYC alone could easily be replaced by these things? How many cars all over New England? And if they need to go super far there are options/charging stations exist and people have done EV road trips.
It gives me the energy of the people who spend $70k on a truck claiming that they need it to help someone move when they coulda spent $25k on a normal car and rented a U-haul for under $100. We don’t need to buy all these things for the worst case scenario unless we are actually going to regularly find ourselves there.
Oh I completely agree, I was simply answering your question. I’ve lived basically my whole life nowhere near a major metropolitan area, so I am all too familiar with a long commute from more rural areas, and about a quarter to half of the people I’ve worked with in my small city were in the same boat.
I wasn’t taking a stance - because I know that this car is exactly enough for PLENTY of people in the US. The Bolt EV, Bolt EUV, and the Leaf are decently comparable options in the US that have sold okay, but for the people that do buy them - they ADORE them and become fanatics. If you live and work in the city, have a short commute, and travel infrequently or have an ICE backup for road trips, low range but affordable EV’s can be a dream. If you live in the right place and have the right sort of lifestyle, cars like these give many of the EV benefits like MUCH cheaper energy from charging at home, no gas station stops ever, and silent operation, all at a way better price because you were simply shopping appropriately for your range needs.
Now, I’m not exactly sure what worst case scenario you’re talking about - you just buy the car that serves your needs. I was speaking of possible worst cases in hypothetical in my previous post, thinking about all the places I’ve been that were relevant to answering your question. Lived experience where I know I could not have made a car like this work to my benefit. If you’ve got a 120 mile round trip commute every day right now, you just might not want the car that has 140 miles of range in the summer and gets less than 100 miles in the New England winter. If you’re regularly driving out into the backcountry for weekend hikes, bikes, or skiing, you at least need to be able to get from the last public charger to your destination way up hill in the mountains. Public charging is a worse value vs gas (in most US states), so if you’re very rural and have to drive 50 miles to get to town for some errands and groceries, you’re only getting half the benefit of garage charging if you must charge in public on every trip out of the house. Situations like these might necessitate a high range EV, or just sticking to gas while adoption, infrastructure, and battery chemistries catch up in your area.
Bad news!
The Dacia Sandero has been delayed.
“The all-electric Dacia Spring now starts at just €11,900 (around $13,900), thanks to a massive €5,000 (around $5,900 at current exchange rates) discount.”
24kwh battery, 300 km range or so .
300 km out of 24 kWh?
Press X to doubt.
Depends on the weight of the vehicle.
I don’t know what typical ranges are for given kWh, but it’s probably worth noting that it’s quite a lightweight car and that number is for city use, i.e. low speed
300km***
*Downhill
**On ice
Vehicle manufacturers: when I drove to school, it was 150 km and downhill both ways!
I’d really like to get this car but most people have told me it’s too risky for me, anyone else has any input?
I can’t load at home or work, but I could load at a station accessible by foot a few minutes from my house, as well as once a week when I go shopping for about 30-45 minutes.
I only have to drive twice a week, 90km per day two days in a row, with no opportunity to load in between, but I could load the day before and the day after. People have told me it’s too risky especially in winter I might not make it on that distance.I have this car since 2024. The previous generation. I can answer some more questions if you wish.
I charge at home. Sometimes at DC when I do some longer trips. Longest was 300km at once. Had to do 2 stops 30 minutes each.
Normally in the summer I get 2km per 1% of battery. That is 11kw/h while driving 110km/h on the Autobahn. During winter it goes down to 1,5km per 1%.
That means I can safely drive 160km in one hop and the charge with some bigger buffer during summer. 100km during winter.
That is for a long trips. I use this car mainly to move around my city. If I wouldn’t charge it at home I’d charge it during weekend groceries. 40 minutes charging on any DC charger would bump it up to 90% easily. So groceries time.
Apart of this this car is a banger. A classic car with no bullshit digital stuff, but electric.
I would love this as a commute car (if it was available in the US). I do have to drive about 80km round trip but it’s only 2-3 times per week so it would be fine. The only caveat would be top speed which would be fine if it’s in the 100 kph range.
Get yourself a used Nissan Leaf. About the same price, does that range. I’ve had one as a commuter car for 10 years. It’s perfect. Only maintenance is new tires and wiper blades. It’s basically paid for itself in reduced maintenance and fuel prices.
Yeah I have seriously considered that. Especially since the vehicle I currently have gets about 17mpg… oof.
The cost is 6000$ and your soul
Family income of 30k a year max they really just wanna entrap people onto permanent debt.
I don’t get how you come to that conclusion. If you properly read the article you would have seen that the €30k limit is for a subsidy/emission reduction scheme by a governmental organization in Italy bringing the car prize down to €3900. That’s far from pushing the people into debt…
Great! Anyway…
