Dacia’s essentials-only ethos would seem to stand it in good stead to capture a share of this cheapest of car segments. The Ami is one of Europe’s cheapest and lightest EVs and goes without costly, heavy equipment such as air conditioning, an infotainment system, advanced driver aids and power steering.
Dacia would no doubt follow a similar path if it entered the quadricycle market, and last year’s Manifesto off-road buggy concept gave clues as to how it plans to combine utility with affordability in future models, – most realistically with its phone-based infotainment system, washable upholstery, easily replaceable body panels and single headlight cluster.
Each of Dacia’s upcoming products is based on a derivative of parent company Renault’s CMF-B architecture, save for the Spring, which is based on the smaller, electric-only CMF-AEV platform. It is unclear whether this platform can be shrunk yet further to provide a base for a true ‘sub-A0’ city EV, but notably Renault’s newly hived-off mobility brand, Mobilize, recently revealed the Twizy-esque Duo as a no-frills EV designed for car-sharing schemes, and this would seem a logical base for any Dacia equivalent.
Durand is convinced that European governments should do more to incentivise the purchase of tiny electric cars in this vein. Pointing to Japan’s ‘kei car’ classifications as an example of how regulation can drive uptake of more space-efficient cars – by offering tax, insurance and parking benefits to vehicles below a certain size – he suggested Dacia would only enter this market if the legislative conditions were right.