Been a long time since that word was last used in social circles (at least mine), but Dacia has dug it up for its latest concept car – a boxy little EV called the Hipster. According to the Renault-owned brand, it foreshadows an affordable, essential runabout that aims to become “THE popular electric car of tomorrow”.
Will this be Dacia’s entrant into the European Union’s new ‘E-car’ category? Autocar reported last month that EU president Ursula von der Leyen would work with car industry bosses to develop a new small, affordable car category. A sort of kei class for Europe, if you will, but European-sourced and with less stringent safety regulations. The Dacia Hipster’s airbag count, by the way, is two.
The overhang count, however, is absolutely zero – I mean, if you’re going to fit four seats and a 70-litre boot (expandable to 500 litres) into a thing that’s just three metres long, 1.55 metres wide and 1.53 metres tall, you’d want to stretch the body right up to the corners, I’m sure. It’s smaller than a Fiat 500e, and at around 800 kg, it’s a light ‘un.
Looks wise, well, look at it. All lines and sharp angles, and dare I say I see a bit of Defender in that side profile? The full-width tailgate opens in two parts – the upper one being glass – and the tail lamps sit behind said glass. Door handles? They’re those straps at the trailing edges of the doors.
The interior is out of this world, featuring a hexagonal steering wheel, a front bench seat, mesh fabric upholstery, sliding side windows and an almost-completely-vertical glasshouse. There are 11 anchor points around the vehicle for you to mount stuff like cupholders, armrests and ceiling lights. The centre touch-screen is your own phone, of course, but we must say, going back to basics hasn’t been this funky in a long time.
However refreshing a change it may be from the sea of Chinese EVs out there, its range is unlikely to ruffle their feathers – Dacia, without divulging a single kW or kWh figure, just says the Hipster offers “sufficient range for daily journeys with two recharges per week” and that “in France, 94% of motorists travel less than 40 km per day.” There kind of are about 194 other countries in the world, but still, this is the funkiest thing we’ve seen in a while – go through the photos below if you want to know what ‘hipster’ really means.
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Western manufacturers are still big on hyping up their concept cars.
It could challenge upcoming European safety tests for small, affordable vehicles and introduces an innovative, perhaps impractical, idea: a compact car featuring an office chair and a larger wheel ratio that is usually incompatible with small-wheelbase EV mileage ranges
For comparison, this is about half a meter shorter and about same height as a P2 Viva. It’s properly diminutive next to even an Axia. Then again it’s just a concept for now.
and this tiny toy car will be priced higher than geely xingyuan if it actually gets built and sold, so be grateful tht PRC is kind enough to subsidize malaysian car buyers
Please produa, we need a fun city car like this
Make a new Kenari with such fun design
Yes , Perodua heard it .
but they need get approval from doyoda . (they very busy on ICE)