- The compact four -seater SUV could be cheaper than Dacia spring
- The design study loses the comfort of creatures to maintain the cost
- Inspiration taken from nothing and teenage engineering
Measuring only three meters long, 1.53 meters high and 1.55 meters wide, the concept of Dacia Hipster looked slightly comical when it silently rolled in a hangar on the outskirts of Paris, with a driver behind the wheel and the Dacia design director, David Durand, waving from the rear passenger seat.
It is incredibly small, but with the four 14 inch wheels pushed at each corner to maximize the space, it can comfortably accommodate four or transport a washing machine at the rear when the back seats are folded flat.
Over the course of projects, this is probably the most dacia thing that Dacia has done for a long time.
To summarize, the company has been on an ascending trajectory over the past ten years, proving a success with regard to customers thanks to its excellent value proposal and its driving without frills.
The Dacia have always represented good value, but they have exceeded the characteristics of the cup and now have its own personality.
Proudly in the Renault group, the company is able to take the existing technology (often preceding generation cars) and to apply it quickly and at a lower cost to its own models.
But in recent years, it has increased its style, nailed its brand and cemented its reputation as a travel facilitator on the road “Go-AnyWhere” which has plunged customers from almost all car segments, age groups and social status.
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When the Spring EV arrived, it quickly became the cheapest electric vehicle that money could buy and is always one of the most affordable ways to enjoy the automobile without emissions. But not the content with this, Dacia is more on a mission to reduce costs.
By removing 70 cm from the overall length of spring, the company has been able to save considerable equipment in the hipster concept, but there are hundreds of other details that help reduce the cost more.
The design director, David Durand, points to the fabric handles that open the doors, the sliding glass windows (the fact that they do not fall into the door map allows an additional place for the elbows) and the exposed front and rear lighting which deletes with superfluous envelopes.
“This simply adds additional equipment and weight, so we left the raw lights,” explains Durand, agreeing that there is more than a suspicion of teenage engineering and nothing on the exposed screws and the cuboid surfaces.
Inside, the seats abandon the cushioning and the usual coatings for a light frame covered with a surprisingly comfortable mesh fabric. “Like these office chairs,” said Durand.
There is a small digital display in front of the steering wheel for speed readings and other key measurements, but it is up to the driver to bring their own device.
There is a cradle and charging ports for a smartphone and Dacia offers an application that connects with the vehicle to transform said phone into a traditional infotainment dashboard, with shortcuts to Spotify, Google and all other important applications.
Hip to be square
Dacia designers have also riffled on the next generation of the brand’s youclip 3D 3D print system, which sees things like lights, cubelet holders and storage solutions carefully attached to various points throughout the car.
In the hipster concept, a number of these points have a power flow, which means that users can boost devices by passing load cradles, but also feed a fan to cool or heat, and a Bluetooth speaker to explode the air.
“We even asked if we need air conditioning in a car like this,” said Durand. “This is a vehicle that the owners of vehicles will jump in a trip for 20 km, so there is no real need for large screens, air conditioning and other underused extras,” he adds.
Durand tells me that the company aims at a hypothetical range of approximately 160 km from a full battery load and that the DC rapid load is probably out of the question, because most will probably connect to the house or work.
Hipster is still a concept for the moment, but he believes that Dacia wants to do this in production, citing the fact that the European Union is currently debating by adding another automotive category to the existing quadricycle L7, which can be motivated without a complete license and by those of 14 years in certain countries.
A secondary category which is just under a vehicle of segment A, which legally requires a certain number of active and passive safety systems which would add weight and cost to the hipster, would allow the compact four -seater to serve those who want something more than a Citroen Friend, but do not want to engage in a more traditional EV.
The budgets being stretched, younger drivers find it difficult to find the freedom and converts of potential electric vehicles repulsed by large swollen SUVs, the hipster concept offers a cool alternative – something unique, something intelligent and something very dacia.
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