The Dacia Sandero has made a rather good habit of being exactly what a lot of buyers want and not much more. Cheap, honest, sensibly sized, and refreshingly unpretentious. Now the next generation is set to broaden the brief in a way that should keep the accountants happy and the loyalists from reaching for the smelling salts: it will go electric, but petrol power is staying in the mix too.

That matters because the Sandero sits in a very awkward but useful bit of the market. It’s the sort of car people buy when they want dependable transport rather than a rolling statement of personal philosophy. Dacia knows that well. So instead of binning one powertrain in favour of another and telling everyone to cope, it appears to be preparing a proper mixed range for the next Sandero, including a battery-electric version and conventional combustion options.

A broader Sandero family is coming

The next-generation supermini will not be a one-trick pony. According to the information available, Dacia is planning a range of powertrains for the car, rather than forcing the entire model line down a single route. That should give the brand flexibility in different markets and, crucially, let buyers choose the kind of driveline that suits their lives and their wallets.

Petrol still has a place for one very simple reason: it remains the easiest answer for plenty of drivers. No charging cables, no wallbox negotiations, no staring at range estimates like a medieval monk studying the weather. Meanwhile, an EV version would allow Dacia to keep the Sandero relevant as more buyers move toward electrification, whether by enthusiasm or because the world’s nudging them that way with all the subtlety of a boot to the shin.

The Stepway is staying in the picture too

Alongside the standard hatchback, the more rugged Stepway version is also expected to continue. That should come as no surprise. The Sandero Stepway has been one of Dacia’s most successful tricks: take an affordable supermini, give it a raised ride height, some body cladding and a faint whiff of adventure, then watch the public queue up because crossovers are still the dominant form of social performance art.

The Stepway has always appealed to buyers who want the look and stance of something a bit more capable without the price or bulk of a full-fat SUV. It is a formula Dacia has milked rather effectively, and there is every reason to believe that the next Sandero will carry on with the same two-pronged approach: practical hatchback for the sensible crowd, Stepway for the ones who like the idea of light green-lane heroics but mostly want to get to Tesco without drama.

Why this approach makes sense for Dacia

Dacia has built its reputation on keeping things straightforward, and this future Sandero strategy fits that philosophy neatly. A small, affordable car with multiple powertrain choices is far more useful to the brand than one that tries to be everything to everybody and ends up becoming a smug little compromise.

It also reflects the reality of how people actually buy cars. Some want the lowest possible running costs and the comfort of petrol simplicity. Others are ready for electric driving, especially if they can charge at home and mainly do short urban trips. Many buyers live in the messy middle, where the right answer depends less on ideology and more on whether Monday morning’s commute involves a cheap supermarket charger or a traffic jam that eats batteries for sport.

Dacia’s challenge is to keep the Sandero accessible while modernising it enough to remain competitive. That is easier said than done. Adding an EV powertrain usually means more cost, more packaging headaches and more engineering complexity. But it also opens the door to a wider audience, and for a car that has long been a value champion, that is no small thing.

What buyers can reasonably expect

The source information doesn’t spell out the technical details of the next Sandero, so there’s no point pretending we know the battery size, range, charging speed or output figures. Those will come later, and when they do, they’ll tell us a great deal about how serious Dacia is about the electric side of the car.

What we do know is that the next Sandero is being prepared as a more flexible proposition, and that is the important bit. The car’s appeal has never been about fancy hardware or theatrical engineering. It has been about making sensible things easier to buy. If Dacia can carry that logic into the EV age while still offering petrol versions for those who need them, it should keep the Sandero right where it has always been: annoyingly sensible, quietly successful and just a touch cheeky about it.

In other words, the Sandero is growing up without suddenly developing a taste for expensive tailoring. That seems entirely in character.