Dacia EV adventure
Electric vs Gravity
Romania’s Transfagarasan highway is so high it’s only open three months a year. We drive it in Europe’s cheapest EV, the Dacia Spring
There are great driving roads and then there’s the Transfagarasan highway. Chiselled into the apex of Romania’s Carpathian mountains, it’s as if a supreme being reached down from the heavens and laid out the finest Scalextric track for his or her pleasure.
In truth the architect was closer to the devil, Nicolae Ceausescu, Romania’s head of state from 1967 to 1989. Ceausescu ordered a highway be built into the mountains, to act as an escape route for him and his army should the Soviet Union march on Bucharest. Labouring at an elevation of 2000 metres from 1970 to 1974, a workforce of army personnel and convicts used six million kilos of dynamite to reshape the sheer cliff faces for a road. Many lives were lost.
Today, the Transfagarasan highway is a spectacular playground for cyclists, bikers, walkers, holidaymakers and car lovers. We’re going to discover it in the Dacia Spring, Europe’s cheapest electric car. With a maximum range of just 137 miles, and 64bhp.
The temperature is a ferocious 37˚C as we size up the Lichen Kaki-coloured Spring on Bucharest’s western perimeter. It radiates the charm of small things, mixing a footprint not much longer than a Fiat 500 with chunky SUV body protection. This is a flagship Extreme model, denoted by Copper Brown flourishes on the side mirrors, roof bars and interior. The wheels stretch to 14 inches in diameter.
You start the Spring by putting an ancient Renault key in the ignition barrel and turning it. In two days I never truly fathom the starting protocol. Eventually there’s a beep and I select R, appreciate the luxury of a rear camera view, then reverse, swivel to Dand exit the car park.
At the first junction we need to cross two lanes of fast-flowing traffic, stop in a central safe spot the size of a lily pad then elbow our way into the stream rushing west. And we wait. Then a gap! Iclump the accelerator and the Spring lurches forward, then I jump on the brake to land in the safety zone. Safety? The Spring’s overhanging nose looks destined to take a punch and its rump is indecently exposed, despite the car measuring just 3734mm long. After another tense wait, with no pedestrians, lights or road furniture to slow the flow, I go for it despite an onrushing white van and Dacia Logan taxi. Swinging the light, rubbery steering, the Spring arcs across the dual carriageway and picks up speed: made it without crashing in the first mile!
I’m instantly grateful for the Spring’s driveability. The accelerator is responsive, the brakes punchy,
