Meudon (Hauts-de-Seine) (Reuters) -Dacia, the Low Cost brand by Renault Group, presented on Monday a prototype electric mini-car (VE) at less than 15,000 euros that can embody the future category of affordable urban vehicle that several car manufacturers call for their wishes in Europe to try to relaunch sales.

If it was revealed in the huge speaker of the Hangar y de Meudon (Hauts-de-Seine), originally used for airships and captive balloons, the “hipster concept” is tiny, only three meters long for a featherweight of less than 800 kg, including battery.

Its maximum speed bridled at around 90 km/h allows it to free itself from certain aerodynamic constraints and display a cubic silhouette offering four real places and a more generous interior volume than its ultra-remedy external dimensions suggest.

True to its strategy, Dacia has also simplified the vehicle to reduce the weight and the bill: a single color proposed, openwork canvas seats, electronics brought back to the strict minium, sliding windows by hand, straps to open the two doors instead of conventional handles and floating lights accessible from the rear window, which replaces the traditional transparent plastic covers.

The new director general of the brand, the German Katrin Adt, who came from Mercedes-Benz, said that it was only “a concept of Dacia’s daring vision for local, affordable and daily mobility”, while adding that the group may not stop there.

“Within the Renault group, we potentially have all the advantages necessary to concretize this project,” she said. “We remain vigilant to technological and regulatory developments, but our ambition is clear, if the opportunity arises to produce it in series, we are ready.”

Current discussions

Renault and Stellantis have taken the lead in a campaign to try to authorize in the European Union a new category of car, between the L7 of quadricycles under 450 kg and the M1 bringing together all current, small or large cars.

An intermediary category would make it possible to get rid of the long list of functions now compulsory for any approval in M1, particularly in terms of security. Its promoters argue that a vehicle reserved for urban or peri-urban use can do without a large part of these driving aids, while remaining sure for its passengers.

In addition to the uncertain outcome of the current discussions on this category of e-cars, inspired by the Japanese Kei Cars, other obstacles remain before cars like Hipster are born.

“The regulations will also surely impose to produce the vehicle in Europe,” said David Durand, director of design for the Dacia brand. “We must also develop the industrial model that goes with and know where to place a small factory (…) to size specially for this vehicle.”

Hipster would present a reduced autonomy of 150 km, sufficient for the uses of a family, in the second car, a young driver or a retiree. According to figures published by Dacia, cars travel on average less than 40 kilometers per day at an average speed of 56 kilometers/hour.

This new category is also a response to price inflation noted for several years due to the price of materials and batteries, as well as increasingly supplied technological content. Dacia estimated that the average price of a new car on the market had climbed 63% between 2001 and 2020, followed closely by used cars whose price has taken 45% in 14 years.

(Gilles Guillaume report, edited by Kate Entringer)

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