Dacia Spring vs Leapmotor T03 – which is best?

If you want a cheap electric car, the Dacia Spring and Leapmotor T03 are the two least expensive new models you can buy. They’re best suited for built-up areas but both can manage a longer journey too. We compare the Spring and T03 to see which electric city car you should pick.

Shop used Dacia Spring cars and used Leapmotor T03 cars for sale at Motorpoint.

Dacia Spring vs Leapmotor T03 compared

Styling

Both the Spring and T03 are designed to take up as little space on the road as possible, although to our eyes the Spring’s styling makes it stand out more. The separate daytime running lights, the cityscape map on the bumpers and the SUV-like wheel arches give it more character than the T03.

For better or for worse, the T03 has a plainer, more generic design. You might like the slightly smiling face or feel that its design is more grown-up than the Spring’s.

Interior and technology

The Leapmotor T03 goes for a more grown-up feel inside than the Dacia Spring, too. There’s a touchscreen as standard and slightly nicer interior materials, including fabric on the armrests. Build quality is decent for the price, and you get a lot of ‘big car’ features crammed in, such as adaptive cruise control, alloy wheels, a reversing camera and a glass roof – which either aren’t standard or aren’t available at all in the Spring.

But the T03’s plain interior does little to welcome you in, and you might struggle to find your perfect driving position because there’s not much adjustment for the seats and steering wheel. The touchscreen is slow to respond and it’s not very intuitive, with many things buried in submenus, and its positioning makes it a little hard to see. Doubling this issue is how reflective the screen is in sunlight. The various driver assistance systems bong at you incessantly, and it’s not always obvious what they’re trying to tell you.

Sitting inside the Spring, you won’t see a single bit of fabric – or anything that isn’t plastic. It leans into its cheapness, but a range of coloured accents make it feel a bit more homely than the T03’s fifty shades of grey. Everything feels purposeful and a bit rugged.

Entry-level models miss out on a touchscreen but still get a fairly user-friendly digital driver’s display. Many buyers will value having the touchscreen, especially because it’s so easy to operate. It’s quicker to load, too. Doing the essential bits well makes Dacia’s infotainment system one of our favourites. You can configure your ideal driver assistance settings in one menu, and switching to those settings takes just one button press. Chef’s kiss.

Dimensions and practicality

It probably won’t surprise you that both of these cars are among the smallest cars you can buy. But it might surprise you that both will just about take four adults in relative comfort. The T03 offers more rear-seat space (largely because of the limited front-seat adjustment), and the extra width makes it more spacious for occupants sitting side-by-side. Both are four seaters.

The T03’s boot is awkward to access and you get less carrying capacity than the Spring. No parcel shelf in the T03, either. The Spring is much better for luggage space, especially with the seats folded. Neither car offers a split-folding rear backrest, meaning you can either carry passengers or luggage, not a combination of both.

Range and performance

If you really need to, both the Dacia Spring and Leapmotor T03 will sit on the motorway for a short period of time – but you’ll get the best efficiency and experience in built-up areas.

Speaking of efficiency, the Spring is the clear winner. It’s easy to achieve over 5mi/kWh, which is a really impressive figure. Squeezing out so much from such a small battery means the Spring is cheaper to run than the T03 – although the difference will be fairly minimal if you charge at home on an electric car tariff with windows of cheap overnight power.

A recent update upgraded the Spring’s motors. Now, the base model offers 70hp and the top model has a heady 100hp (giving 0-62mph times of 12.3 and 9.6 seconds respectively), but you’ll also find 45hp and 65hp versions on the used market. Having taken a 45hp Spring to motorway speeds, we can report that doing so requires total commitment and a dollop of bravery. The 0-62mph time of 19 seconds makes it the slowest car you can buy. The 65hp car, meanwhile, does the same sprint in 13.7 seconds.

Value

The Dacia Spring is cheaper to buy new, and very slightly cheaper as a used car – although the differences in monthly payments (new or used) is marginal.

Dacia offers a three-year warranty as standard, but you can enjoy coverage until the car is seven years old if you keep it serviced at a main dealer. Leapmotor, meanwhile, offers a four-year warranty and four years of roadside assistance. Both offer eight years/100,000 miles of warranty on the high-voltage battery packs.

Which is best?

The Leapmotor T03 offers much more equipment and slightly more range for broadly the same money as the Dacia Spring, so it feels like the better-value option. However, the Spring is easier to live with – we’d almost certainly get annoyed with the T03’s touchscreen and ADAS systems.

Buy the Leapmotor T03 if you value the extra equipment and sensibleness it offers, but buy the Spring if you want something that feels a bit quirkier yet familiar.

For more information on these models, read our Dacia Spring review and Leapmotor T03 review. Made up your mind? Shop used Dacia Spring cars and used Leapmotor T03 cars for sale at Motorpoint.