Dacia, an automotive brand owned by French automaker Renault (RNLSY), has revealed its prototype for a box-design electric vehicle that will cost less than €15,000 ($17,608). The design, if mass-produced and marketed, could challenge several Chinese EV producers who are making inroads in Europe through their affordable EV lineups.
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Dacia revealed the new design on Monday, calling it “the Hipster Concept.” The vehicle is three-meter-long and about one and half meters high and wide. The company described the vehicle as an “ultra-compact” vehicle that looks like “a block sitting firmly on four wheels.”
The vehicle comes with vertical windows and windscreen, three painted parts, a smartphone docking station, and a “practical” strap instead of exterior door handles. The company said the vehicle “has been optimized to offer exceptional space” and can take four adults comfortably.
Renault and Stellantis Campaign for Small Cars
The launch of the prototype comes at a time when Renault and Stellantis (STLA) are in the lead in a campaign for the European Union to relax rules on the production of small cars. Both automobile manufacturers want to see a resurgence of small vehicles, pointing to the popularity of small and urban vehicles such as Kei cars in Japan.
“With Hipster Concept, Dacia wants to go even further [than its first electric car Spring] by targeting a wide audience that currently cannot find anything to suit their budget,” Dacia noted in a statement. “The average price of new vehicles in Europe rose by 77 per cent between 2010 and 2024, far outpacing household purchasing power.”
The vehicle could compete with several Chinese makers’ current models of small electric cars that are gaining popularity in Europe. This includes BYD’s (BYDDY) Dolphin, Seal, and Seagull models; Leapmotor’s (HK:9863) T03 city car; and Nio’s (NIO) incoming Firefly brand.
This is even as BYD last month beat rival Tesla (TSLA) for the second consecutive month to wear the crown for EV sales in Europe.
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