Renault 5 E Tech
The Renault 5 E Tech looks so much like the Renault 5’s I used to own back in the early 1980’s. At that time I had an orange coloured 5TL with a black stripe around the body which I nick named “Jaffa”. It took Karen, me and our Alsatian Tara all the way to the Lake District and Scotland from here in Plymouth.
That is why with such fond memories I really like the look of the new Renault 5 E Tech. I love the yellow colour and the specification is really good as well. The range of 200 miles plus from a 52 kW battery is more than enough for the journeys I do.
My current car a Kia Nero EV4 will be three years old later this year so now could be a good time to change. I have test driven the Kia EV3 the logical replacement for “KEV” (Kia Electric Vehicle – I always name my cars!). The trouble is they do not do the GT Line S in any decent colours. If I go for the Basic EV3 Air model that comes in an acceptable blue but I lose the sunroof, heads up display and several other accessories and it still comes in at £36000 plus.
If I have to give up these options then the Renault 5 E Tech may be the better choice. At around the £30000 price tag it has a good level of spec but alas no HUD or sunroof and it even comes without true one pedal driving.
All the reviews wax lyrical about this little car and I include below the review by the Fully Charged Show. Have a watch and see what Jack thinks of the new Renault 5. I may be tempted yet…..
This is one of the most hyped new cars of this decade but is it overhyped?
No – this as you’re probably aware is the new Renault 5 and I admit it I’m late to the party. I missed the launch of this car last year and it feels like everyone and their mom has had a go in this and raved about how brilliant it is.
Leaving me feeling like that one guy that hasn’t seen the Lord of the Rings and so what I’ve done to make up for it is ensure that I’m one of the first people in the UK to spend some proper time with this car most media have only had access to a Renault 5 for an hour or two at international press launches.
I have lived with this thing for a week and a half now and I have breaking news it’s flipping sensational
What’s it like to drive?
Okay we’re going to skip the formalities today cuz I feel sure that by now you know what this car is you know what Renault wants it to be you know that it sits underneath the megane scenic in their electric vehicle range.
The four is coming soon which is like this but a bit bigger and that the Twingo like this but a bit smaller is coming after that although not necessarily to the UK just yet fingers crossed this video is about what this thing is like to live with and I want to start with what it’s like to drive because that’s been a standout pleasant surprise.
The reason I say pleasant surprise is I drove the Alpine A290 before I drove this and I loved it. It was so fantastic to drive so much fun and also so comfortable and I was mentally prepared to have to really adjust my expectations for this car which costs a lot less money but I didn’t have to because the Renault 5 is really fun to drive and really comfortable.
This is the great thing about cars that don’t weigh 2 1/2 tons the thing about big heavy electric vehicles is you have to give them quite firm suspension to accommodate all of that weight this isn’t very heavy it’s 1 and a2 tons and it benefits from that immensely in terms of the ride.
It just skips over bad road surfaces of which we have many in the UK with a real suppleness it is so much more comfortable than I thought it was going to be and it’s fun too people looked at the power output for this car and they thought “Oh that’s a bit shy they’ve clearly saved a little bit behind so that people have a reason to buy the Alpine.”
But look if I bury my foot Little bit of torque steer instant torque delivery of course because it’s an electric vehicle sure it only does naught to 60 in eight odd seconds but it feels zippy more than enough to enjoy a good little bit of road like this and most importantly so enjoyable around town on a great country road.
I would still prefer to have a manual gearbox personally cuz I love to drive but nipping around town narrow streets 20 30 mph speed limit there is nothing more fun to drive than a small EV i have had such a scream zooming around London in this car for the last week or so i think the best compliment that I can pay the Renault 5 is that having driven it I find the Alpine A290 which I loved quite hard to justify.
yes it’s even faster even better looking even better to drive but it’s some 10 grand more it doesn’t have cup holders
Design
design we’ll keep this bit short because there’s nothing I can say that hasn’t already been said about the way the Renault 5 looks but what I can confirm is you don’t get bored of it over time I don’t know how long I’d have to live with this car before getting to a point where it doesn’t make me happy and excited every time I leave my front door and see it but I’m not anywhere near that point yet.
It is such an attractive little thing has to be yellow if you don’t spec your Renault 5 in yellow you go to jail.
There’s just so many great details everywhere I love the shape of it it’s so squat and muscly like a little rally car. I love the little holographic details in the daytime running lights. I like the little French flags in the headlights, I like the little fives on the side.
I like the little streak of red, I love the charge indicator on the bonnet and these rear brake lights they’re just a work of art.
This might sound like a weird backhanded compliment but this thing looks so good at night the exact same thing goes for the inside. It’s just as fun in there, bring back fun interesting seat materials. We used to upholster cars in all sorts back in the 70s I’m told and we kind of stopped but look at this it’s just so much more interesting than leather or pleather or flever looks fantastic.
Nice material on the dash again little five stitched into the floor mats the little Renault 5 embossed into the rubber mat for the center console you just get the feeling that they had fun with this. I’m very happy to live with interior happy to say it’s not a case of style over substance in this interior you get a real sense that Renault tested the hell out of this thing.
Lived with it did miles in it used it like a car identified annoying things and got rid of them there are so many new cars out where you just feel like that step got missed and this is not one of them so what does that mean. Well perfect ergonomics driving position, lovely super adjustable I can get the steering wheel way out where I want it to accommodate my big long legs.
Perfect visibility really helped by the fact that it’s a small car google software with Google Maps that actually work, voice command that actually works. Look joy of joy proper physical buttons for the stuff you’d want proper switches for climate control hazards, unlocking the doors.
The same on the steering wheel big chunky easy to hit buttons all the pitfalls that are plaguing modern cars Renault have just swerved them. My favorite button by far is one just here to the side of the steering wheel which you push twice and then it puts the car into your personal preference mode for the ADAS. Which is to say all the beeping that you don’t want you can just make it go away without having to go in the touchscreen henceforth any car that doesn’t have that button loses one star in my personal rating.
If I am going to be really pernickety,which I’m going to have to with this car, there is a little bit too much of the fingerprinty piano black material that’s my one gripe with this interior.
Quick mention for a very useful sized boot really decent for this size of car big old lip on it so you got to get stuff up and over but that’s sort of to be expected.
I think one thing I will say could we have just had a bit more space in the back and a slightly smaller boot that’s always the way round that I prefer things because you know can’t see in the boot.
Impressive efficiency now we’ve got to talk about efficiency cuz this is another absolutely standout thing about the Renault 5.
Today I did all the things you’re not supposed to do if you want to maximize your range. I woke up really early it was very cold, I was blasting the heater and the heated seat and the heated steering wheel and doing motorway speed and I’ve done three and a half miles to the kilowatt hour which is just about the worst efficiency you’ll ever see from the Renault 5.
On a regular day when the weather’s not horrible I’m doing mixture of driving 4 miles plus effortlessly standing on its head. That is fantastic to see and it means that both versions of this Renault 5, even the smaller battery version have genuinely useful range.
it’s not 100 odd miles, it’s 160 odd for the cheap version to put that into context my Polstar 2 that I drive, pre-facelift Polstar 2 has 23 kW hours more battery and does about the same real world range as this car.
And that’s testament to a few things, I think the fact they haven’t given it excessive horsepower helps. The fact that it’s a proper bespoke EV architecture probably helps, but above all small and light small and light cars you park one of these next to some 100 kilowatt hour German electric Luxo barge that has barely 50 miles more range it just makes it look Value for money.
You have heard what Jack thinks, You will have to wait and see which way I decide to go…..
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