Dacia Spring 2026 review: Belgian prices and real range

Yes, provided you take a 70 version and mostly drive below 100 km/h. For 2026 the Dacia Spring changes motors and battery without changing its price tag: €16,990 to €19,690 on the Belgian list, 71 or 102 hp, 24.3 kWh of LFP. Here is where it holds up, and where it does not.

€16,990, 71 hp, 222 km: the 2026 Spring in short

Five years after launch, the Spring still shows the same entry price. The change happened under the bonnet: the 45 and 65 hp motors have left the price list, replaced by a 71 hp and a 102 hp, and the 27.4 kWh NMC battery has given way to a 24.3 kWh LFP pack repositioned lower in the chassis (Moniteur Automobile, February 2026).

The claimed range, for its part, has not moved.

How much does the Dacia Spring cost in Belgium in 2026?

Three trims, from €16,990 to €19,690. The Belgian price list recorded on 31/08/2026 gives the following grid.

Prices and data recorded on 31/08/2026 on the Prices and Specifications pages of Moniteur Automobile. Dealer discounts not included.

On top of those figures come taxes that stay modest for an electric car. The annual road tax falls to the minimum rate of €102.96 in all three Regions for the period running from 01/07/2025 to 30/06/2026 (FLEET.be, July 2025). On the registration tax side, Flanders has applied a flat €61.50 to new electric cars since 01/01/2026, Brussels stays at its regional minimum, and Wallonia uses the formula introduced on 01/07/2025 that combines power, emissions and maximum authorised mass. For a 1.1 tonne car emitting zero grams of CO2, the Walloon result sits right at the bottom of the scale, but no amount is published on the price list: the SPW Finances simulator remains the only reliable answer.

Essential 70, Expression 70 or Extreme 100: which one?

The 70 hp, unless you use motorways regularly. It costs €2,700 less than the 100 hp, it is better matched to its tyres, and it stays on the right side of a line Belgian buyers often discover too late.

That line is 66 kW. Several Belgian insurance acceptance grids use it as a threshold for a recently licensed driver, and the new Spring range sits astride it: 52 kW for both 70 versions, 75 kW for the Extreme 100. The €1,000 step from Expression to Extreme can therefore cost a good deal more once the annual premium is added. We already documented that mechanism while building our ranking of the best cars for young drivers, where only three of eight entry versions came in under the line.

Moniteur Automobile reaches the same conclusion by another route. Its road test of the Extreme 100 praises the 9.6 s from 0 to 100 km/h and the newfound ease on fast roads, then points at the sticking point: the factory Linglong tyres cannot handle the torque, which overwhelms the front axle out of roundabouts and feeds back through the steering. In the wet, that calls for care. The tester's conclusion is blunt, the 70 hp is the best price-performance balance.

Between Essential and Expression, the €1,700 gap mostly buys 15-inch wheels and the centre screen. For a car that will spend most of its life on 30 km a day, the Essential is enough.

What is the real-world range of the Dacia Spring?

Between 160 and 190 km in town and the suburbs, 130 to 155 km on the motorway in winter. The 225 km WLTP combined figure is reached by nobody, and Dacia itself claims up to 315 km on the urban cycle, which shows how wide the gap between the two extremes is.

Consumption explains the rest. Moniteur records 10 to 11 kWh/100 km driven gently in town, against 12.6 kWh/100 km homologated. With 24.3 usable kWh, the arithmetic is immediate. At 125 km/h, on the other hand, the small frontal area saves nothing and range halves.

In practice, that makes it a second car or a short-commute machine, not a long-distance one. Our file on real electric-car range shows that the gap between WLTP and reality is proportionally harder to absorb on a small battery: losing 35 % of 225 km leaves 146 km, losing 35 % of 600 km still leaves 390.

The €1,690 of company-car tax the Spring does not save you

As a company car, the benefit in kind on an electric vehicle is calculated on the list value multiplied by 4 %, then by 6/7. For the Essential 70 at €16,990, that gives €582.51 a year. For the Extreme 100 at €19,690, €675.09.

Except that a legal floor applies: €1,690 for the 2026 income year, against €1,650 in 2025 (SPF Finances). Both results are therefore discarded, and the driver is taxed on €1,690, or €140.83 a month.

The number that really counts: the tipping point sits around €49,300 of list value. Below it, every fully electric car is taxed exactly the same.

Put differently, the Spring and a Tesla Model 3 at €45,970 cost their driver the same benefit in kind, even though €29,000 separates them on the price list. The Spring therefore has no tax advantage of its own as a company car: its case rests on purchase price, deductibility and depreciation, not on the taxable benefit. For a self-employed person who drives little and wants a cheap second plate, it still adds up; to replace an executive saloon, the maths does not work.

In Flanders, a 2025 Spring is worth more than a 2026 one

The registration date has become a residual-value criterion. On 01/01/2026 the Flemish Region ended the full exemption electric cars enjoyed, but only for new registrations: vehicles registered before that date remain exempt from registration and annual road tax for life, including after a change of owner (Vlaanderen.be).

On a Flemish used market that absorbs a large share of the Belgian electric fleet, this creates two categories of Spring, mechanically identical and fiscally different. A Flemish buyer taking on a 2025 Spring inherits the exemption; the same buyer, on a 2026 car, pays the annual tax every year until resale.

Over eight years of ownership, the gap runs into hundreds of euros. That is little on a Model Y. On a €16,990 car, it is a bargaining point.

The flaws Dacia has not fixed

The 2026 update sorts out the chassis and the power. It leaves five points intact that you should know before signing:

• One star out of five at Euro NCAP, with driver chest protection rated poor in the frontal impact and no centre airbag. The test dates from December 2021 and has not been repeated since (Euro NCAP).
• The factory Linglong tyres, the only black mark Moniteur Automobile kept against its 100 hp car. Budget for a replacement earlier than planned.
• Four homologated seats, not five. On family use, that is decided before the test drive, not after.
• Hard plastics and average sound insulation beyond 100 km/h. Assembly quality improves, the materials do not.
• The 40 kW rapid charger is still an option. As standard, the on-board charger tops out at 7.4 kW, which is fine at home but stretches every stop on the road.

Against the Leapmotor T03, which one comes out ahead?

The Spring on price and boot space, the T03 on range. Both chase the same Belgian buyer, and the table below sets them side by side on data recorded the same day.

Belgian list prices recorded on 31/08/2026 on Moniteur Automobile. Technical data from the manufacturers.

The T03 buys its extra 43 km of range with 13 kWh more battery, and pays for it in consumption: 16.3 kWh/100 km against 12.6. It also gives up 98 litres of boot space and goes over 66 kW. The Renault Twingo E-Tech, slotted between the two, starts at €19,500 on the Belgian list, €2,510 more than the Essential 70.

Our verdict

For a Belgian second car covering 30 to 50 km a day, the Dacia Spring Essential Electric 70 at €16,990 remains the most rational choice in the segment: under 66 kW, 308 litres of boot, minimum taxes in all three Regions and real consumption around 11 kWh/100 km.

As an alternative, the Leapmotor T03 at €18,900 holds up if your journeys regularly exceed 150 km, at the cost of a far smaller boot and a third more consumption. And if the single Euro NCAP star stops you, which is a fair objection, look instead at the top of our electric city-car ranking or at our most reliable city cars. The comparison tool puts them side by side on your own criteria.