Dacia might just be the first European car maker to put forward a proposal for the EU’s new “small-car initiative”. Dreamed up by the EU in order to placate car makers worried about the impending 2035 cut-off for combustion-powered cars, the small-car initiative hasn’t yet been set in stone, but has the potential to be come a European equivalent to Japan’s famous “Kei car” rules, which promote small, affordable, ultra-frugal cars.
The Dacia Hipster concept looks every inch the Euro Kei car. It’s small, square, stubby and, in the best tradition of Kei cars, absurdly cute. It’s still a concept, but Dacia’s new boss, Katrin Adt, is dropping big hints that something similar could be headed for production.
Right now, Dacia wouldn’t actually be able to build the Hipster as-is, because it would slip between two different sets of regulations – those for small “quadricycles” and those for proper M1 passenger cars. Build it as a quadricycle and its performance and weight would have to be restricted. Build it as an M1, and the cost of adding the safety kit that current legislation demands would push the price up to the level of the current Dacia Spring.
The Hipster – powered by batteries for a putative 150km range, rather than by the sourdough bread and matcha lattes that the name suggests – is a mere 3m long, yet seats four in relative comfort inside. In that, admits David Durand, Dacia’s chief designer, there is some inspiration taken from the original 1959 Mini.
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“We had this inspiration of a very small car on the outside, but when you sit inside you think ‘where has all this space come from?’ So that was taken from the original Mini,” Durand told The Irish Times. “What we didn’t take from the Mini is the driving position. We wanted a raised-up driving position, so that your eye line is similar to that of other cars. So you are anticipating things, and you are feeling more secure in traffic, which is important because the car is very compact.”
It certainly is compact. The Hipster seems almost comically small when you’re standing next to it, aside from the roof, which is at a relatively normal height and is how Dacia has been able to find so much space inside. The exterior comes in only one colour – moulded into the plastic bodywork – but the idea is that the trim sections on the outside can be had in a variety of colours, allowing some personalisation.
There are some seriously clever design touches, such as that the rear window is also the clear cover for the brake light and indicator LEDs, and the split tailgate allows for extra versatility when loading up the car.
Speaking of which, the Hipster is surprisingly practical. With all four seats occupied, there’s a tiny 70 litres of storage in the boot, but if you fold down the one-piece back seat, and swing the neat hinged headrests to one side (those hinges neatly doubling as fixing points for the brake-light pods – no part is allowed to do just one job in the Hipster) and you’ve got 500 litres of space. That’s enough, says Dacia, for a Hipster to be able to carry a washing machine in the back.
More importantly, it’s genuinely roomy for four people, and almost surprisingly comfortable in the front, where the driver and passenger sit on seats made from a tightly woven mesh. There’s a handy glass panel built into the roof over the front seats, which is less a sunroof and more a way to be able to see traffic lights when you’re first in the queue, as the Hipster’s shallow, almost vertical windscreen doesn’t allow you much of a vertical viewing angle.
There’s cabin is minimalist but cute, with a neat twist-and-grip gear selector to the left of the chunky four-spoke steering wheel, and a large open shelf on the passenger side of the dashboard. The cabin is festooned with Dacia’s “YouClip” attachment points, allowing you to dangle all manner of accessories, from cupholders to phone holsters, and even a tiny air conditioning fan.
In front of the passenger’s feet, extra space has been scooped out to allow you to fit a carry-on-sized bag, while the instrument panel is a simple portrait-style display that looks like you’ve left your phone on the dashboard. Which you can actually do, as on the right of the steering wheel there’s a docking station for your actual mobile, which by way of an app can then act as the Hipster’s touchscreen, navigation and infotainment centre.
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Other neat details abound, such as the absence of exterior door handles – replaced by a simple but rugged fabric strap – and the sliding side windows, Renault 4-style, which because they don’t need a winding mechanism have allowed the designers to scoop out spaces for armrests on the inside.
Durand is excited at the prospect of tackling the EU’s new small car regulations with something like the Hipster.
“It would have been better if we had had the regulations earlier, but I would say that this car, the Hipster, is even something of a manifesto to provoke the regulators, to show what is possible,” he said. “And the reactions of the public will help us to push more, and to know if our response is a good one – are people happy with this type of car, at this size and so on. For Dacia, we have to be in this field. It’s our homeland.”
So far as an actual production Hipster is concerned, Dacia boss Adt told The Irish Times: “For a concept car, it’s quite advanced, it drives. So it’s no joke, and we’re taking it very seriously. But there is no decision so far, and we still need to figure out the regulatory and technological issues.”
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Adt has been in the top job at Dacia for only a month, replacing the departing Denis Le Vot, who had done so much to build Dacia up from cheap-and-cheerful to sales juggernaut, but she’s clearly sticking to the Dacia way of focusing not on corporate nor business sales, but aiming directly at private customers, even with something like the Hipster, which one might assume is better suited to an on-street instant rentals service.
“The concept is that the Hipster could serve as a second car for families, or maybe a first car for young people, or even for older people who have restricted budgets,” she said. “So we are still in our normal field of thinking about retail customers.”
Dacia has pushed slightly upmarket recently, with the arrival of the larger, more luxurious (relatively) Bigster SUV, but Adt is adamant that the Romanian-based brand will stick to its affordable roots.
“Nothing is set in stone, but our approach is always to be the most affordable car in any segment” she said. “We entered the C-segment of the market with the Bigster because, of course, it’s interesting to us, it’s the biggest segment in Europe. So we just entered into the C segment because it’s, But we came in with a very clear position, and the first results are very promising for the Bigster, and we have already announced that we intend to to add more products to that segment. However we, I think that the most important thing for us is to stick to our DNA, and our DNA is always to offer affordable mobility.”
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Don’t hold your breath waiting for a Hipster to appear at your local Dacia dealership, but the brand still has some new models coming to Ireland in the next few months, including updated versions of the Sandero and Sandero Stepway hatchbacks, and the Jogger seven-seater, all of which gain the latest 1.8-litre, 155hp hybrid petrol engine, as well as a new four-wheel-drive, mild-hybrid system for both the Duster and the Bigster, which trims their CO2 levels to as little as 115g/km, and claims that you can drive on electric power for as much as 60 per cent of the time around town.
Speaking of electric, there’s also an upgrade for the tiny Spring electric car, which keeps its 225km range but gains a slightly smaller, slightly lighter, more robust lithium-iron phosphate (LFP) battery and, crucially, updated suspension with a front anti-roll bar that should quell some of the Spring’s small boat on a big sea sensation when cornering.
