First look: Renault Twingo electric – the small EV we’ve been waiting for? | Electrifying

#twingo #twingoelectric #electriccars

The original Twingo was very first released in 1993, when the French firm's design boss decided to change the much liked Renault 4 with something more like a minivan. The name "Twingo" originated from a mix of three popular dances – the "Twist," "Swing," and "Tango" and this little city vehicle hit the right note with purchasers becoming an immediate icon thanks to its mix of quirky style and usefulness.

Targeted at individuals looking for a little inexpensive runaround, its blocky, characterful shape and innovative usage of area – it had sliding rear seats and a large, brilliant cabin – gave it an edge over its competitors. Gradually, the Twingo underwent numerous improvements. The 2nd generation in 2007 brought more modern styling and greater refinement, though some felt it had lost a bit of its original character. In 2014, the 3rd generation presented a rear-engine, rear-wheel-drive design, borrowing elements from the Smart ForFour before being stopped in the UK in 2019 amid flagging sales.

Today, Renault is gearing up to relaunch it as a completely electric model bringing its blend of retro appeal to the economical end of the EV market. Don't puzzle this with Renault's electrical version of the 3rd generation Twingo – which wasn't sold in the UK – this is an all new cars and truck and will sit together with other electrical designs in Renaults range – the Megane E-Tech, the Beautiful E-Tech, the E-Tech and the forthcoming Renault 4 E-Tech.

Join Ginny as she takes a first take a look around the new, born-again E-Tech. Is this the small electrical automobile we've been awaiting? Will it be on your shortlist next year? Let us know in the comments listed below.

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Comments

43 responses to “First look: Renault Twingo electric – the small EV we’ve been waiting for? | Electrifying”

  1. @MaticTheProto Avatar
    @MaticTheProto

    Renault keeps winning

  2. @darrens3 Avatar
    @darrens3

    Thank god it’s still friend shaped.

    1. @ashliehiggins Avatar
      @ashliehiggins

      It wouldn’t be Twongi if not fren shaped.

  3. @Betsybetsybetsy-wf9xv Avatar
    @Betsybetsybetsy-wf9xv

    Kinda weird how you say it is “like a love child between the Fiat 500 and the Ford Ka”, while most of all, it looks very much like the original Twingo, which had a distinct and iconic design on its own.

    1. @FilJR99 Avatar
      @FilJR99

      Absolutely. If anything the Ka was inspired by the original Twingo. One of the best small city cars ever, such a great concept!

    2. @niklaswejedal463 Avatar
      @niklaswejedal463

      My thought exactly…

    3. @richardpiper4828 Avatar
      @richardpiper4828

      The Fiat 500 and Ford Ka were siblings built on the same production line in Poland. Ford used the Fiat platform as they couldn’t afford to build an entry level model off the more sophisticated Fiesta platform.

    4. @JuicyJohnEV Avatar
      @JuicyJohnEV

      Sometimes I think they use chatgpt to write the scripts.

    5. @BMWHP2 Avatar
      @BMWHP2

      indeed. The Fiat 500 and the Ka where 2-door cars. This is nothing like that. It has 4 doors and looks like that latest 4-door Twingo

  4. @whittaker52 Avatar
    @whittaker52

    The styling kinda reminds me of a cross between the original twingo, the Renault modus and the Vauxhall adam. It looks very neat as a little city car!

  5. @stephenclay6852 Avatar
    @stephenclay6852

    If they can build that and look like it then credit to the designer. Looks really good.

  6. @OldCodeMonkey Avatar
    @OldCodeMonkey

    I’m tempted the say that Smart with the #1, #3 and #5 all develop cars in the same way with Geely providing all bits you don’t see and Mercedes Benz doing the design and stylin of the car and interior

    1. @jonevansauthor Avatar
      @jonevansauthor

      Historically, the major ICE companies often collaborated on cars, and shared platforms with their competitors. It’s not new in any way. Even Ferrari will use indicators from a Ford Fiesta and just charge ten times as much (actually more than ten times) to their gullible consumers. I’m still hoping they’ll do a modern Smart ForTwo but I’m not expecting it to be as good as a Chinese Smart EV clone (which are better than Mercedes could manage).

    2. @neilrwilliams218 Avatar
      @neilrwilliams218

      That was my first thought too.

  7. @vp272 Avatar
    @vp272

    It’s good to see that the streets will soon be filled with smaller, affordable cars again. Perfect for tight city roads and car parks

    1. @stuartheydon6323 Avatar
      @stuartheydon6323

      I doubt it!

    2. @madmcadder4536 Avatar
      @madmcadder4536

      Totally agree ….well said.

    3. @vask3863 Avatar
      @vask3863

      Small affordable cars in 2024? Yeah sure… Even a Fiat 500 or 500e costs as much as a fully equipped limousine two decades ago.

    4. @vp272 Avatar
      @vp272

      @@vask3863 most people buying new cars now buy on finance so as long as the monthly payments are acceptable, the demand is there. Recent over supply and government mandates has meant the market has now some cracking deals. You simply cannot compare prices from 20 years ago with inflation and wages rising…

    5. @michaeldawson6309 Avatar
      @michaeldawson6309

      BMW i3’s are available now at great prices and look much nicer.

  8. @shroomyesc Avatar
    @shroomyesc

    From any other manufacturer I wouldn’t trust that the production version would look like this concept, but bar the big wheels and some minor details like the screen badge and fully flush panels I believe them that the production version will look almost identical. Mostly because the Renault 5 ended up looking exactly like the concept and judging by the spy images and the teasers the same applies to the new 4.

  9. @stephenballantyne Avatar
    @stephenballantyne

    They’re not ‘city’ cars! They’re just cars with slightly shorter range for people who don’t do motorway distances on a regular basis. These cars are perfectly happy in the countryside, suburbs, towns and, yes, cities. Stop encouraging people to view them as being limited to cities.

    1. @zeberday1 Avatar
      @zeberday1

      It’s just a catch all term.

    2. @jonevansauthor Avatar
      @jonevansauthor

      100% that used to drive me nuts in my Smart car. It’s a city car! You can’t drive it on a motorway! It’s not safe! You can only carry well over one shopping trolley of groceries in the boot, so it’s got a small boot, despite the litre volume being surprisingly close to a Fiesta or similar! You can’t carry 4 people. No, really mate, you think a criticism of a 2 seat car is that it doesn’t have 4 seats? Is it valid to say a Fiesta is useless because it doesn’t have 7 seats?

      I drove mine from Cardiff to the north east, no problem, and Portsmouth and other places. It was never a problem. The only time I had a problem was when the Severn Crossings closed due to ice falling from the bridges and no-one was allowed, or one or two instances of high wind, during which everyone, particularly lorries, had to slow down. So nothing unique to my ‘city car’. If city car meant anything it would be, ‘awesome car that copes fine with the motorway but in a city, demolishes trash like BMWs at the traffic lights, humiliating the drivers who invariably have feeble egos and think acceleration matters, doesn’t have useless seats, can carry all your shopping and is much easier to park and cheaper to run, insure and fuel.’ So… just better for almost all journeys humans actually take.

    3. @stephenballantyne Avatar
      @stephenballantyne

      @zeberday1  it doesn’t catch all though. It suggests to people who don’t live in cities that it won’t be suitable for them, so they go and buy SUVs instead. ‘Smaller range’, ‘runaround’, ‘second car’ are all better terms to describe these vehicles.

    4. @gap9992 Avatar
      @gap9992

      Surely the “City” label is much more about size than range! Would you like them to be called something catchy like Quite Small Car with a small turning circle?
      Assuming that people will not be able to work out that City Cars can be driven outside cities is a bit of an insult to the human race

    5. @stephenballantyne Avatar
      @stephenballantyne

      @gap9992  just ‘small car’ is fine. City car is a pretty poor description for cars that will predominantly not be driven within cities and only serves to discourage non-city-dwellers from buying them. Do you think it contributes to or helps to ease so-called range anxiety? When I got my electric car the first thing everyone asked was “what’s the range?” and I wanted to say “I don’t care and neither should you”.

  10. @mikadavies660 Avatar
    @mikadavies660

    Renault keep smashing it…. Thank god they are NOT swallowed into that god awful Stellantis Group! Renault are standing alone at trying to build affordable/practical & stylish BEVs. Just hope they are successful in keeping it affordable in the real world.

    1. @verygoodbrother Avatar
      @verygoodbrother

      I despise many Stellantis cars.

    2. @jbmaru Avatar
      @jbmaru

      Renault has Nissan in their group too. That’s great because Nissan are preparing production for solid state batteries, and hopefully Renault cars will benefit from it.

    3. @mikadavies660 Avatar
      @mikadavies660

      @@jbmaru Renault and Nissan have separated.

    4. @jbmaru Avatar
      @jbmaru

      @@mikadavies660 Oh really? They must still be collaborating though, the Nissan Ariya is on the same platform as the Megane E-Tech.

    5. @mikadavies660 Avatar
      @mikadavies660

      @@jbmaru Totally logical that they still have links. I’m sure it’s to do with Nissan’s credit rating which was lowered to “junk”. I’m sure Renault wanted to pull away to have their own credit rating. Behind the scenes, they can still share platforms. Not that Nissan is under pressure from Japan to go “hybrid” whilst France and Renault want to go “all in EV”…. The next 5 years will be very interesting.

  11. @bobsingeton2719 Avatar
    @bobsingeton2719

    If the final production version looks like this “concept” version – and the numbers (£, range, etc) stack up – then Renault should be on to a winner for those of us looking for a small city car.

  12. @alexmckenna1171 Avatar
    @alexmckenna1171

    Wonderful design, and the colour is fab. Makes a change from grey and white..

  13. @lastfour Avatar
    @lastfour

    This video reminds me that I really want a Renault 5. These designs are really nice, different but classic at the same time.

  14. @chrishumble8662 Avatar
    @chrishumble8662

    Renault is knocking small EVs out of the park right now

  15. @HeadPack Avatar
    @HeadPack

    Great to see Renault doing another classic again. Drove a first gen Twingo and loved it. Hope the interior can be turned into a bed again. That was so nice on long drives for little naps.

  16. @aye3678 Avatar
    @aye3678

    That green paint is absolutely beautiful.

  17. @RIZFERD Avatar
    @RIZFERD

    I always love Twingo since the beginning, always cute simple allrounder

  18. @urbanstrencan Avatar
    @urbanstrencan

    Love the looks they nailed it, a proper homage to the first gen Twingo, Renault awesome job 🙂 cant wait to see it on the road, and yeah it will be build here in Slovenia at Renaults Revoz plant 🙂
    Great video and keep it up

  19. @nathanwolf5547 Avatar
    @nathanwolf5547

    I like the fact, it looks so solid and even slightly sporty.

  20.  Avatar
    Anonymous

    It’s so good looking! It’s so instantly recognisable as Twingo, it looks like a cartoon version of the first generation, absolutely brilliant!

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