Dacia has trimmed the price of its Spring city car to just £11,990 – undercutting the similarly sized Leapmotor T03 to become the UK's cheapest car.

The move comes a day after Leapmotor slashed the entry price of its own tiny EV to £12,995, giving the T03 the cheapest car crown for just 24 hours. 

The cheapest Spring, though, is the entry-level Expression model, which with just 70bhp and a range of 140 miles is outpaced and outdistanced by the T03.

The uprated Spring 100, with specs that more closely match the T03, is also priced to match it at £12,990.

The more expensive Spring also adds a 10.1in touchscreen with smartphone mirroring, electric rear windows and a reversing camera over the sparsely equipped standard car. 

For reference, the UK's cheapest petrol car is the Dacia Sandero, which starts from £14,765.

Leapmotor's discount comes in the form of a self-titled 'Leap Grant' – a manufacturer-backed alternative to the government-funded Electric Car Grant that certain European-built EVs can claim – which gives a saving of £3000 off the T03's original list price of £16k. 

The Spring is also built in China and therefore excluded from the government incentives, which effectively reward local manufacture and low-emission shipping, so Dacia's discounting is likewise self-subsidised.

However, the next-generation Spring, due to be unwrapped in a few months and on sale early next year, will be built in Europe (probably alongside the closely related Renault Twingo in Slovenia) so is more likely to qualify for state incentives. 

Lina Ribeiro, Dacia's UK boss, said the discounts have been enabled by "production efficiencies and a strong drive to continue to offer real value to our customers", which "have helped us to pass on the savings".