Aiming at a city target that loves compact electric cars, the DR 1.0 EV could grab market share from the Dacia Spring in Europe.
The Dacia Spring sees the arrival of a new competitor in Europe in the segment of electric city cars. The Italian brand DR announces the launch on its domestic market of the DR 1.0 EV, marketed in €25,900 without help. It is therefore a little more expensive than the one it will try to eclipse, since the Dacia Spring of 2023 is displayed at a price of 23,200 euros with our transalpine neighbors. The availability of the DR 1.0 EV has not yet been formalized in France, but the importer Valenti is a partner of DR Motor Company, for which it has already distributed several models in France.
If you do not know DR, it is an Italian company founded in 2006, which does not develop its own vehicles. She works with the Chinese manufacturer Chery. It is the latter who designs the cars, then sells assembly kits to DR under white label, who then takes care of customizing the vehicles as he sees fit. The DR 1.0 EV is thus an almost perfect clone of the Chery eQ1launched in China in 2016.
An electric city car à la Dacia Spring
The DR 1.0 EV adopts a 3-door format and dimensions of 3.20 mx 1.55 mx 1.67 m, with a boot capacity of 110 litres. It is equipped with a motor developing up to 45 kW, which allows the compact electric car to reach up to 120 km/h. It accelerates from 0 to 50 km/h in 5 seconds and from 0 to 100 km/h in 17 seconds. You have understood it: due to its size and its performance, the vehicle will have difficulty in distinguishing outside an urban setting.
Autonomy is announced at 294 km in the WLTP urban cycle and at 210 km in the WLTP mixed cycle. It takes 4 hours on trickle charging to power the 31 kWh battery from 20-80%, and 6.5 hours from 0-100%. In fast charging, the times drop to 35 and 50 minutes respectively.
In terms of options, we have an electronic parking brake as standard, the Auto Hold function which completes this brake, a wireless smartphone charger, a reversing camera, as well as a 9.7-inch center screen.
Source: DR Motor Company