The Chinese manufacturer Dongfeng has just presented a new urban electric car that looks like two peas in a pod to the Dacia Spring. The Dongfeng EV Nano Box, as it is called, will be sold for less than 10,000 euros.
If you are looking for a new electric car, you probably have not missed the Dacia Spring, a model that can be exchanged from 15,800 eurosbonus of 5,000 euros discounted.
Budget electric cars should soon take up even more space in manufacturers’ ranges. In fact, in China, these cars are not rare, and they are also very successful. Dongfeng has also made it a specialty by introducing several low-cost electric models, such as the Fengguang Mini EV, which sold nearly 400,000 units last year.
More luxurious than a Dacia Spring
Among these cheap electric cars there is also a micro-urban car, the NanoEV, and now we will also have to count on the Dongfeng EV Nano Box which, as you can see, looks strangely like the Dacia Spring. Say Dacia Spring copies are quite widespread in Chinain particular thanks to Dongfeng who makes the most of the concept by marketing this model under the Aeolus, Fengguang, Fengxing and Venucia brands.
The Dongfeng EV Nano Box is a bit special, because if you use the CMF-A technical base of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance, its interior is, on the other hand, a little more modern and even a little more “luxurious”, one could say. As you can see in the photos, the car has a large 10-inch screen in the center and a second 7-inch screen that acts as an instrument cluster.
The controls and steering wheel are similar to the Dacia Spring, as are the materials certainly used, but overall the little Chinese electric city car offers more than the Spring sold in Europe.
Less than 10,000 euros
Under the hood, it’s the status quo, the Dongfeng has the same 33 kW electric motor (about 45 hp) and 125 Nm of torque. The battery has a capacity of 27.2 kWh for the version that has a range of 330 km according to the Chinese CLTC approval cycle. Two other versions will be available with autonomy of 201 km and 351 km, again according to the Chinese cycle.
As a reminder, in Europe, in the WLTP cycle, Dacia announces 230 km of mixed autonomy with the same battery and the same engine. A figure closer to reality.
Customers can also equip their model with a fast charging system. In this case, it will take 32 minutes to go from 30 to 80 percent, while with standard slow charging it will take three hours. We find the same in the Dacia Spring, with the 30 kW DC charger.
The car starts in its basic version, in China, at 65,700 yuan, that is, approximately 9,500 euros. And obviously, this small model was especially expected in China since the reservations, which opened this week, have already raised 10,000 orders.
But be careful, even if this car arrives in France one day (with, for example, a future version of the Dacia Spring), you will have to expect a much higher price, as we explain in our tab dedicated to Chinese cars.
“Chinese car” no longer necessarily rhymes with “low-cost.” In fact, the Chinese manufacturers that settle in Europe display their models at prices very close to those of “traditional” manufacturers and, therefore, sometimes very far from…
read more
To follow us, we invite you to download our application for Android and iOS. You can read our articles, archives and watch our latest YouTube videos.