Renault Group budget brand Dacia has confirmed its first electric model would be produced in China.
The automaker will built the new model in a factory in Shiyan, Hubei, romania-insider.com. reported. The factory is owned by eGT New Energy Automotive, a joint venture between Dongfeng, Renault and Nissan. The same factory builds Renault’s K-ZE small SUV model which shares much with Dacia’s new Spring.
“The Renault group did the engineering part on [the alliance CMF-EV platform]. Production is in China which as the largest market for electric cars, has a fully developed ecosystem, and allowed us to bring Spring to Europe as soon as possible,” Mihai Bordeanu, marketing director at Dacia, told Hotnews.ro.
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By GlobalDataDacia said last week it would will start selling the electric model in the first half of 2021. The Spring EV would be “the most affordable electric car in Europe,” Renault said during an online EV presentation.
Romania media have estimated a price range of EUR15,000 to EUR20,000 for the new model which will have a relatively modest range of 200km (120 miles).
Romania Insider said Shiyan was the first commercial vehicle production base in China and there are over 500 car and parts manufacturers in the city, with annual production capacity of 500,000 vehicles.
In recent decades, the automotive industry in Shiyan has shrunk, largely due to increasing production in larger cities with better transit links, the report added.
Somewhat ironically, romania-insider.com noted, Shiyan has been, since December 1999, a sister city of Craiova, Romania, home to the former Daewoo factory which now makes Ford’s Puma and EcoSport models.
Dacia parent Renault owns Romania’s other, and largest, car factory in Pitesti. That plant dates back to Cold War ‘Iron Curtain’ days when it was set up in the Russian-influenced, former East European Communist bloc, assembling Dacia badged Renaults from CKD kits.
