WITH a price tag of under £15k the new Dacia Spring electric supermini has been named by a leading magazine as the nation's ‘Most Eagerly Awaited Electrified Car of 2024'.

Additionally, the Dacia Jogger made it a double celebration for the Renault-owned Romanian brand, with the innovative seven-seater winning Best Hybrid Estate Car in the EcoCar electrified top 50.

Priced from £14,995, the Spring will arrive in UK showrooms later this year and the right hand drive model will be a new and improved version of the first generation model. First introduced in mainland Europe in 2021, it has been widely credited with democratising electric car ownership throughout the region.

The Spring has already notched-up more than 300 advance orders from UK buyers and with attractive finance offers, including a £169 per month PCP deal with a low £2,325 deposit, that number if expected to grow as the car's on-sale date gets closer.

Ian Robertson, editor and publisher of Diesel&EcoCar, which organises the annual awards, explained why the magazine singled out the Spring as 2024's most wanted EV: "British buyers have looked on jealously at other European markets that have been able to buy the first-generation Spring since its arrival in showrooms.

"With prices starting from just £14,995, it's the cheapest electric car on sale in the UK bar none, and October can't come around fast enough. Amongst our readers,it's the car that has created the biggest buzz, generated the most number of questions, and demanded lots of answers."

Available in two trim levels - Expression and Extreme - the Spring comes with either a 45 bhp, or a more powerful 65 bhp/48 kW motor and has a range of up to 140 miles in mixed motoring or 186 miles around town.

Using its 7kW charger, the compact 26.8 kWh battery can be charged from 20 to 100 per cent on a suitable domestic outlet in less than 11 hours, or in just four hours on a 7kW charger.

Standard specification includes a seven-inch digital instrument cluster, cruise control, manual air conditioning, rear parking sensors, media control system with USB port, electric front windows and remote central locking.

Dacia UK's brand director Luke Broad commented: "We are thrilled that so many people are looking forward to its arrival and, like them, we can't wait for the all-new Spring to hit our shores - it really does have the potential to be the game-changing EV that people need."