The Chinese manufacturer Dongfeng has just presented a new electric city car that looks like two drops of water to the Dacia Spring. The Dongfeng EV Nano Box, that’s its name, will be sold for less than 10,000 euros.
If you are looking for a new electric car, you have probably not missed the Dacia Spring, a model that can be exchanged from 15,800 eurobonus of 5,000 euros deducted.
Low-budget electric cars should soon take up even more space in manufacturers’ ranges. Indeed, in China, these cars are not rare, and they meet besides a nice success. Dongfeng has also made it a specialty by presenting several low-cost electric models, such as the Fengguang Mini EV, which sold nearly 400,000 units last year.
More upscale than a Dacia Spring
Among these cheap electric cars, there is also a micro-city car, the NanoEV, and we will now also have to count on the Dongfeng EV Nano Box which, as you can see, looks strangely like the Dacia Spring. Say copies of Dacia Spring are quite widespread in Chinain particular thanks to Dongfeng which draws on the concept to the maximum by marketing this model under the brands Aeolus, Fengguang, Fengxing and Venucia.
The Dongfeng EV Nano Box is a bit special, since if it uses the CMF-A technical base of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance, its interior is on the other hand a little more modern and even slightly more “plush” one could say. As you can see from 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 small Chinese electric city car offers more than the Spring sold in Europe.
Less than 10,000 euros
Under the hood, it’s status quo, the Dongfeng has the same electric motor of 33 kW (about 45 hp) and 125 Nm of torque. The battery has a capacity of 27.2 kWh for the version which has a range of 330 km according to the Chinese CLTC approval cycle. Two other versions will be available with ranges of 201 km and 351 km, again according to the Chinese cycle.
As a reminder, in Europe, on 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 per cent, while it will take three hours with the standard trickle charge. The same is found on the Dacia Spring, with the 30 kW DC charger.
The car starts in its basic version, in China, at 65,700 yuan, i.e. approximately 9,500 euros. And obviously, this small model was particularly expected in China since the reservations, which opened this week, have already raised 10,000 orders.
But beware, even if this car arrives one day in France (with for example a future version of the Dacia Spring), you will have to expect a much higher price as we explain in our dedicated file on Chinese cars.
“Chinese car” no longer necessarily rhymes with “low-cost”. Indeed, Chinese manufacturers setting up in Europe display their models at prices very close to “traditional” manufacturers, and therefore sometimes very far from…
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