The Romanian brand is currently expanding its market footprint outside of its core B-segment offering, with the Bigster and two other C-segment cars due in the coming years and the A-segment Spring already established as one of Europe’s most popular electric cars, but the potential to reach downwards into the tiny urban EV market remains, as design chief David Durand revealed to Autocar.
While he questioned whether cars have a place in the most congested urban environments – “why do you need a car in the centre of the city?” – he acknowledged that public transport does not work for everyone and bicycles are not a suits-all mobility solution. “Two wheels, for many people, is dangerous,” he said.
Durand admitted to being a fan of the Citroën Ami’s approach to catering to city drivers, and when asked if Dacia could launch a rival product, he said: “We are considering everything.”
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 (it is technically a quadricycle, rather than a car) and goes without costly, heavy equipment such as air conditioning, an infotainment system, advanced driver aids and power steering.
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.
