Radical Dacia Hipster revealed as 800kg electric car for sub-£15k

He said that EU legislators have added around 100 new regulations for cars since 2010 and estimated that there will be another 100-plus added between now and 2030.

Partly as a result of this increasing legislation and all the extra equipment and materials it necessitates, the average weight of a new car is said to have risen 15% over the past decade, its power has increased by 43% to compensate and it has increased in cost by 63%.

The used car market, Marotte added, provides little refuge from these increased costs, with prices having risen 45% between 2010 and 2024.

"So our expectation is that, whether it's about safety, whether it's about technologies, we need to be more pragmatic, because we need to bring back affordable cars on the road. We need to bring back into the market customers who [have gone] away from it because they simply cannot afford new vehicles or even used cars.”

Less is more in the real world

Marotte said that the Hipster’s bare-bones conception is reflective of an ambition to strip away any non-essential content and cut costs out of the manufacturing process, thereby bringing the price down for customers.

"We need to work even harder than before on design-to-cost and design-to-weight as well,” he said, adding that “if we can reduce the weight, then we can extend the range without over-investing in batteries, so that's really the magic work that we have to put in place".

Weighing in at less than 800kg (20% lighter than the Spring), the Hipster has been designed to use as few materials as possible, in line with an ambition to halve its total-lifecycle carbon footprint compared with today’s cleanest EVs. 

A by-product of keeping the weight down is increased efficiency, and while Dacia hasn't released a specific battery capacity for the Hipster, it said it would only need to be charged twice a week, based on the fact that the majority of motorists drive fewer than 24 miles per day. 

Patrice Lévy-Bencheton, Dacia's director of product performance, said the Hipster demonstrates the contrast between the perceived requirements of modern EVs and how they're actually driven and used in the real world.

“We cannot continue with this 'always more' trend, which is why we have to propose a completely different approach, to disrupt again with the vision of what we should bring, and Hipster concept is exactly this," he said.

"In daily driving, you don't need a 1.5- or two-tonne car with an 80kWh battery capable of doing 0-100kph in four seconds. You don't need this.

"Let's just go back to the essentials: what do we really need on a daily basis?"

To which end, the Hipster’s battery and motor are “sized as needed” and it's more sparsely equipped than any current production car.

Hipster goes minimal for maximum appeal

Chief designer David Durand told Autocar the squat, blocky Hipster demonstrates that the affordable cars can also be desirable, citing iconic utilitarian ‘people’s cars’ like the Fiat Panda, Citroën 2CV and Land Rover Series I as inspirations.

“All those popular cars were super appreciated and they were not expensive. They were super popular; you had a lot on the streets. So for us, it's an example that we should be able to reproduce this mindset, and in these situations, essential becomes super cool.”

Dacia said the cabin has been "optimised to offer exceptional space" in spite of the Hipster's diminutive footprint, highlighting the vertical sides, wide door openings and tilting front bench seat as some of the headline space-saving elements. 

Also contributing are the sliding glass windows, which avoid the need for bulky mechanisms and allow for an armrest within the width of the door – and the lack of an integrated infotainment system.

Dacia has instead equipped the Hipster with a smartphone mount in line with its cost-saving 'bring your own device' ethos - which extends to the car being unlocked using an app, rather than a physical key.

Meanwhile, the rear light clusters are mounted behind the upper portion of the split tailgate and so don’t need their own glass covers, while the exterior door handles have been replaced by a strap.

While the Hipster is equipped with the bare minimum equipment it needs for daily city driving, it does feature 11 of Dacia's 'YouClip' accessory mounts throughout the cabin, which can host kit including Bluetooth speakers, cupholders, armrests and extra lights. 

The concept is driveable and finished to a level that’s close to what could be expected of a near-production prototype, but Dacia bosses wouldn't commit to a potential launch date, with the car’s viability ultimately contingent on a hospitable legislative environment. 

Durand said: “I hope we will find a way through the regulation, through all the aspects. There is also an industrial risk: are we sure that there are enough customers to buy it, and is it still a field that is really our specialty?

"There are questions to solve, but this car is feasible. We are not far [away]: we have some regulation problems to solve and some answers to come from the regulators, but there is no big reason why it shouldn't be feasible at the right price, the right weight, the right everything."