Dacia Spring Cargo review

The Dacia Spring Cargo is about as small as a van gets. Based on the Dacia Spring electric city car, it turns the brand’s cheapest EV into a two-seat commercial vehicle with a mesh bulkhead, a flat load area and just enough carrying capacity for lightweight urban delivery work.

That makes it an unusual proposition. At 3.7 metres long, the Spring Cargo is shorter than many small cars, and its 1085-litre load bay and 370kg payload put it closer to a cargo bike alternative than a conventional small van. Even the Ford E-Transit Courier, currently one of the smallest electric vans on sale, is vastly larger and more capable.

The upside is price. With a list price of around £14,000 plus VAT and on-the-road costs, before the Government’s plug-in van grant is applied, the Spring Cargo is comfortably the cheapest new electric van you can buy. It also has a modest 24.3kWh battery, giving it an official range of up to 140 miles, which should be enough for local delivery routes, town-centre trades and small businesses that rarely stray far from base.

The question is whether being cheap, compact and electric is enough.

What's new?

- December 2025 – Updated version announced with more powerful 70bhp electric motor

The Dacia Spring Cargo uses a single electric motor driving the front wheels, producing just 70bhp. That sounds worryingly modest, and it is, but the Spring Cargo weighs less than a tonne when empty, so it doesn’t feel completely overwhelmed in the urban driving it’s clearly designed for.

Around town, the Spring Cargo is easy to drive. Power delivery is smooth, visibility is good, and the tiny footprint makes it simple to thread through narrow streets or tuck into small parking spaces. It’s at its best when trundling around between 20 and 40mph, where its light weight and instant responses make it more useful than headline power figures suggest.

Venture beyond town, though, and the limitations become obvious. Acceleration is leisurely, with 0-62mph taking 12.3sec, and our Spring Cargo topped out at an indicated 68mph. That means motorway driving is possible but not necessarily pleasant, and you’ll spend most of your time in the inside lane. Joining faster traffic also requires more planning than it would in a Citroën ë-C3 Van or Ford E-Transit Courier.

There’s only one battery option: a 24kWh (estimated usable capacity) pack mounted under the floor. Dacia quotes an official WLTP range of up to 140 miles, which is modest by electric van standards but realistic enough for short local routes. During our time with the van, covering motorways, A-roads and city driving in Cambridge, it returned 4.8 miles per kWh, equating to roughly 129 miles of real-world range. That was in very hot weather, with the air-conditioning working hard all day, so the result was respectable.

Ride comfort is acceptable, but not especially polished. The Spring Cargo feels firm over potholes and sharper bumps, and you’re never in much doubt about the road surface beneath you. It isn’t uncomfortable enough to be a problem around town, but rivals feel more substantial and better isolated.

Handling is fine at urban speeds, helped by light steering and the Spring’s narrow body. Push it harder on faster roads, though, and the budget tyres and short wheelbase make it feel less settled. We tested the Spring Cargo during a rare dry spell, so the tiny van never saw any damp roads, but colleagues who have driven the passenger version in the wet have found it less confidence-inspiring when grip levels drop.

“The Spring Cargo is at its best in town, where its tiny size and light steering make it feel genuinely useful. On faster roads, I was reminded very quickly that this is a very small, very cheap electric van.” – Phil Huff, Van reviewer

The Dacia Spring Cargo’s interior is as basic as you’d expect from one of the cheapest electric vehicles on sale, but it isn’t entirely stripped out and ends up feeling ‘honest’ rather than ‘budget’. In fact, the 10.1in touchscreen looks surprisingly generous in a van this cheap, and it includes wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. That’s useful, because the built-in infotainment system is less impressive, and the navigation in our test van proved awkward enough that we quickly abandoned it.

Dacia has also kept physical controls for the air-conditioning, which is welcome in a working vehicle — or, indeed, any vehicle. They’re simple, easy to understand and far less distracting than the touchscreen-heavy setups found in more expensive vans.

The rest of the cabin is much more utilitarian, though. The dashboard uses hard plastics throughout, the doors feel thin and tinny, and the digital instrument display gives you only the basics. There are a few mildly frustrating details, too. White trim around the dashboard helps brighten the cabin but can reflect awkwardly in the windscreen.

None of that is surprising at this price, but the Spring Cargo doesn’t have the robust feel you get from something like an Ford E-Transit Courier, itself a van that doesn’t get too close to luxurious.

Nevertheless, visibility is good, helped by the upright driving position, compact dimensions and the mesh bulkhead behind the seats. Unlike in many small vans, the rear-view mirror remains useful, giving you a view through the load area and rear screen, at least when not loaded to the roof.

“The Spring Cargo's cabin is basic and narrow, but the touchscreen, smartphone mirroring and physical climate controls make it more usable than you might expect.” – Phil Huff, Van reviewer

This is where the Dacia Spring Cargo needs the biggest caveat. Judged against conventional vans of any size, it is tiny, lightly built and very limited in what it can carry. Judged as an alternative to a cargo bike, scooter-based delivery setup or an elderly hatchback with the rear seats folded down however, it starts to make a little more sense.

The load area can take a little under 1.1m3 of cargo, which is less than half what you’ll get in the Ford E-Transit Courier. Payload is similarly modest, at 370kg, and that figure has to include the driver and passenger — two adults on board will take out a sizeable chunk out of what’s available for cargo.

Despite offering a smaller load area than the Spring’s most obvious rival, the Citroën ë-C3 Van, it’s capable of carrying 70kg more than the French car-derived model. So it isn’t useless. There’s still enough carrying capacity for light urban delivery work, small trade jobs, florists, local food businesses, mobile technicians or anyone moving relatively compact, low-weight items around town. It just won’t cope with the sort of bulky or heavy loads expected of a normal small van.

The load bay itself is created by removing the rear seats from the Dacia Spring passenger car and fitting a flat floor behind the front seats. A steel mesh bulkhead separates the load area from the cab, which is useful because it keeps the rear-view mirror functional and prevents the cabin from feeling completely boxed in.

Access is via the regular hatchback tailgate, rather than van-style rear doors. That means there’s a noticeable loading lip to lift items over, so repeated loading and unloading won’t be as easy as it is in a proper van. Four tie-down points are fitted, providing a means of securing loads.

The rear passenger doors remain in place, but they’re more useful for reaching in to grab small items than for loading anything substantial. The apertures are narrow, and the doors themselves are short, so most cargo will go through the tailgate. And if you want to tow anything, then forget the Dacia — it’s not an option.

Passenger space is also limited. The Spring Cargo is extremely narrow — its body is more than 20cm narrower than the E-Transit Courier’s — so two adults will sit close together, and shoulders are likely to rub. Taller drivers will also want more adjustment in the driver’s seat, although it proved comfortable enough for this precisely average height road tester during a typical eight-hour working day around Cambridge.

Storage is limited but adequate for a small urban van. There are the usual door pockets and dashboard spaces, but don’t expect the sort of clever work-focused touches you’ll find in larger purpose-built vans.

“The Spring Cargo isn’t so much a small van as a weatherproof electric cargo bike with two seats and a heater. For some jobs, that might be exactly what’s needed.” – Phil Huff, Van reviewer

The strongest argument for the Dacia Spring Cargo is cost. At about £14,000 plus VAT and on-the-road costs, it is comfortably the cheapest new electric van on sale in the UK, undercutting the Citroën ë-C3 Van by more than £3000, and costing around half the entry-level Ford E-Transit Courier.

As with its rivals, it also qualifies for the Government’s plug-in van grant, currently reducing the purchase price by £2500. That puts the Spring Cargo in a very different position to more conventional vans, which offer far more space and payload but cost considerably more.

Charging costs will depend heavily on where you plug in. The 7.4kW onboard charger means a full charge from a home or workplace wallbox takes about four hours and could cost only a few pounds using a cheap overnight tariff. Rapid charging is also available, but only at up to 40kW, so a 20-80% top-up takes around half an hour. That sounds slow compared with larger electric vans, but because the battery is so small, it still adds a useful amount of range for local work. 

There’s only one trim level, and there isn’t much scope to push the price up with expensive upgrades. Standard equipment includes a 10.1in touchscreen, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, air conditioning and a reversing camera, which makes the Spring Cargo feel better equipped than its bargain price suggests.

Dacia’s warranty package is also worth considering. The Spring Cargo can be covered for up to seven years, provided it is serviced within the Dacia dealer network, although the 75,000-mile limit is relatively low for a commercial vehicle. That may not matter to the sort of local delivery user the Spring is aimed at, but higher-mileage operators should take note.

The low price does come with compromises and, paradoxically, causes the biggest headache for buyers. If you’re wedded to electric, then a used Renault Zoe Van will cost less and provide more usability, while using your own car and folding down the rear seats will be cheaper still.

“The Spring Cargo’s numbers are small in almost every area, but that includes the one that matters most to many buyers: the price.” – Phil Huff, Van reviewer

Buy it if…

- You want the cheapest new electric van available

- Your work is mostly local and low-mileage

- You carry light, compact loads

Don’t buy it if…

- You need the space and payload of a proper small van

- You regularly use public rapid chargers

- You cover long motorway journeys

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