What about on the move? The full-hybrid powertrain isn’t our favourite in the Duster and the same may prove true for the Bigster (we haven’t tested the mild-hybrid versions yet so can’t say for sure), but the larger 1.8-litre block used here is appreciably less raucous and generally more assured.
The difference isn’t night and day, mind, and your typical Volkswagen Tiguan owner will still find it fairly coarse under bigger throttle loads, but lowish-load roll-on acceleration is smooth and responsive and the ability of this powertrain to furtively slip into moments of all-electric running remains impressive. In short, it’s inoffensive.
The brakes are fine, too, and the Bigster stops smartly, not least because its kerb weight is 1419kg. That’s low by segment standards: the equivalent Ford Kuga is 1614kg and even the equivalent Kia Sportage is 1561kg. The added benefit is that while the hybrid’s totals of 153bhp and 127lb ft look feeble on paper, in practice decent progress comes easily enough, at least with just two people aboard.
The hardware is geniunely interesting, mind. The full-hybrid Bigster driven here uses a version of Renault’s E-Tech powertrain – a system that, if Dacia had developed itself, would have dramatically increased the price of the car. First prototyped in Lego (no joke), it features two electric motors and a clutchless four-speed dog ’box, along with an ICE, which for the Bigster is that new-for-Dacia 1.8-litre four-cylinder petrol.
The larger motor drives the wheels, while the smaller one acts as a starter-generator, also ensuring that the speed of the gearbox input shaft and the engine (duly held in neutral) match during gearshifts.
One quirk is that the motor can drive through one gear while the engine is dispensing drive through another. It’s a reason why this set-up is comparatively compact.
And despite this complexity, the system does, most of the time, feel more natural than an e-CVT. The hybrid always starts in electric mode, too, the motors drawing their energy from a 1.8kWh battery pack underneath the boot floor, which saps 65 litres of capacity from the mild-hybrid car’s headline 677-litre figure.
