New Renault 5 is one of the cheapest EVs in the UK
The Renault 5 starts from just under £23k and will be available to order from January next year
Renault has had the automotive world in a tizzy over the past year with its retro-designed Renault 5 EV and now pricing has finally been revealed. The line-up will kick off from £22,995, including two powertrains with either 190 miles or 248 miles of range, as well as three trim levels - evolution, techno, and iconic five.
Customers in continental Europe will be able to buy the 5 with an entry-level 94bhp motor, but UK buyers get the option of just two motors - one with 121bhp and 225Nm of torque, and another with 148bhp and 245Nm. The lesser-powered unit comes with a 40kWh battery, while the more powerful option is paired with a 52kWh battery to produce the longer range.
Majoring on standout looks, the new Renault 5 takes on a growing range of all-electric superminis including the Vauxhall Corsa Electric, MINI Cooper Electric and fellow French offering, the Peugeot E-208.
Renault 5: trim levels and pricing
The Renault 5 range kicks off with the evolution trim level at £22,995. For that you get the smaller ‘urban range’ motor and battery, along with 18-inch diamond-cut alloy wheels, LED lights front and rear, plus a host of body colours including white, black and blue alongside some more eye-catching colours in ‘Pop Yellow’ and ‘Pop Green’.
Equipment levels for the entry-level model include a 10.1-inch central touchscreen with Renault’s OpenR infotainment system, a seven-inch driver’s display, automatic air-conditioning, and wireless smartphone connectivity for Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. There’s also safety technology in driver-attention assist, traffic-sign recognition, rear parking sensors and cruise control.
There’s a bit more flexibility with the mid-spec techno trim. You can choose either battery for this specification, with the ‘urban range’ model costing £24,995 and the larger ‘comfort range’ priced at £26,995. On top of the evolution’s standard kit, the techno adds built-in Google infotainment to the touchscreen, along with DC charge preconditioning for the battery, a larger 10-inch digital driver’s display, adaptive cruise control, a wireless smartphone charger, a ‘5’ charging indicator on the bonnet, Renault’s ‘multisense’ driving mode system, ambient lighting, a two-tone exterior paint scheme and a rear-view camera.
The top-spec iconic trim is priced at £26,995 for the smaller battery and £28,995 for the larger battery. It adds unique alloy wheels, a heated steering wheel, heated front seats, active driver assist with adaptive cruise control, hands-free parking, blind-spot warning and rear-occupant alert.
Renault 5: technical specification and performance
Weighing in at 1,449kg in big-battery form, the 5 can sprint from 0-62mph in 7.9 seconds with the larger motor fitted. Despite being 37kg lighter, the smaller-battery model takes nine seconds. The top speed for both is 93mph.
The smaller battery gets 80kW DC charging, while the larger pack can be replenished at up to 100kW, which means a 15-80 per cent top-up can be achieved in just under half an hour. A heat pump is standard on all UK versions, and the car and battery can be preconditioned via Renault’s smartphone app.
In addition, all UK models feature 11kW AC bidirectional charging, allowing you to hook up to a three-phase AC wallbox (more common at commercial premises than at UK homes), power a device from the Renault (vehicle to load), or use the car to help manage power flow within the network by feeding electricity back to the wallbox (vehicle to grid) – a feature that some electricity suppliers offer discounts through.
The 5 will have a ‘B’ setting for more aggressive brake-energy recuperation, but at launch, the car won’t be able to be driven in a single-pedal mode. Renault engineers say the feature could be introduced in a future model-year update, although it would require extra hardware.
Renault 5: design and practicality
The production version of the 5 sits on a fresh architecture called AmpR Small – developed by Renault Group’s Ampere EV division, and renamed from its original title, CMF-BEV. The platform has been conceived to support pure-electric vehicles, but to help cut almost a third from the development bill, engineers made heavy use of the front end of the petrol and hybrid-powered Clio and Captur.
With an overall length of just 3.92 metres, the 5 is compact. That makes it longer than conventional city cars such as the Hyundai i10 or Fiat’s 500, but shorter than pretty much any modern supermini. Renault says the 5 is nine centimetres shorter than a Clio overall, but that the wheelbase is only four centimetres shorter.
The biggest visual difference on the production car comes at the front, where Renault’s design team has played around with the headlights. The final execution references Manga comic characters to help give the 5 even more of a facial expression – something that the car builds on by ‘winking’ one of its eye-like headlights towards the keyholder as they approach.
Renault has retained the distinctive air-intake motif on the bonnet – another nod to classic small Renaults of the past, such as the 5 and the original Twingo. The modern reinterpretation isn’t an intake at all, but instead a display that can show charge levels and indicate when the vehicle is plugged in.
The side features the same hidden rear door handle as the original concept, and a slightly higher roofline than the Clio (the 5 is six centimetres taller). Meanwhile, at the rear Renault has dropped its usual logo (which is still displayed on the nose) and replaced it with the company’s name written out and a specific 5 badge.
Inside, the cabin feels a little tight for four taller adults, but respectable given the 5’s compact dimensions. The boot capacity is 326 litres, around 60 litres down on a Clio’s, although 27 litres of that is beneath the floor, where it’s all but certain to be used to store the car’s charging cables.
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