- Renault has revealed its retro-inspired $23,000 Twingo for Europe and it’s as cute as we expected.
- Its exterior design owes everything to the 1992 Renault Twingo, but it’s bigger, has more doors and is way more practical.
- Production will kick off soon at Renault’s factory in Slovenia and the first deliveries are set for early 2026.
Renault may be the first automaker to use a 1990s vehicle as a source of inspiration for a new retro car. The all-new electric Twingo glorifies the design of the cutesy 1992 original, carrying over many of its familiar cues in a car that hides big ambitions.
With a starting price of under €20,000 ($23,000), Renault wants its new Twingo E-Tech to undercut all the budget models coming in from China. Cars like the BYD Seagull (also known as the Dolphin Surf) are excellent and offer remarkable value for the money, but Europeans would still choose something local if it were similarly priced. At least that’s what Renault hopes, and it’s making extra-sure of that by injecting some nostalgia into the mix.
Photo by: Renault
The French automaker has been teasing the Twingo for a while, showing off parts of the finished production car months before the car was fully revealed. But now that we can see it fully, the old car’s influence is very obvious. The shape of the lights, the three air vents on the right side of the hood and just the general shape are all Twingo staples.
This car also seems to embrace its cheapness in a way we’ve not seen before outside of a Citroen Ami, which isn’t even a car. The front and rear lights appear identical in shape, and what differs is what’s inside them. In the front, you have the projectors that light up the road at night, while in the rear, you get three lamps in each taillight, which probably work as reversing lights, indicators and fog lights.
Inside, the original Twingo influence isn’t really obvious. There are swathes of dark plastic, but there are also color flourishes between the seats, on the dashboard and on the doors and the floor mats also get colorful shapes to lighten up the mood.
Photo by: Renault
Unlike the two-door original, the new Twingo has four doors for considerably more practicality. The two rear seats can individually slide 6.7 inches (17 cm) back to up more knee room for rear occupants or forward to expand the trunk capacity, which is 12.7 cubic feet (360 liters). Fold the rear seats and that expands to 35 cu-ft (1,000 liters).
It’s around 5 inches (13 centimeters) shorter than the Renault 5 E-Tech with which it shares its platform, which is very cramped in the back—a six-footer like myself doesn’t fit behind a tall driver. Renault promises that the Twingo, even though smaller, can fit four “real” adults, and with that much range of motion in the rear seats, it’s probably much better than the 5 at carrying people in the back.
However, it gets a smaller 27.5-kilowatt-hour (usable) LFP battery pack, giving it a WLTP range of up to 163 miles (262 kilometers). That works out to around 6 miles/kWh, which is really impressive efficiency.
By opting for LFP, Renault says it has reduced the cost of the battery pack by around 20%, even though it admits that it has a lower energy density than NMC. The Twingo’s battery is even smaller than the base 40 kWh pack you get in the Renault 5, and it offers considerably less range than the 5’s big 52 kWh long-range pack, which is good for a claimed 250 miles (400 km).
One area where Renault has saved money is in the power of the DC fast charger, which only goes up to 50 kW. But for such a small battery, even that low charging power is still good for 10% to 80% in 30 minutes. There’s also an 11 kW AC charger, which Renault thinks will see the most use, which can charge the car from 10% to 100% in 2 hours and 35 minutes. The Twingo EV also features vehicle-to-load (V2L) bidirectional charging and can supply up to 3.7 kW.
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Source: Renault
It’s not especially quick, with an output of just 80 horsepower and 129 pound-feet (175 Nm) of torque, which is why it needs a leisurely 12.1 seconds to hit 62 mph (100 km/h) from a standstill. Its top speed is 81 mph (130 km/h), which is the speed limit on most European highways. But it should be fun through the corners, though, with just 2,645 lbs (1,200 kg) to lug around and the same corner-loving platform as the R5, although likely without its bigger brother’s multilink independent rear suspension setup.
First deliveries of the Twingo E-Tech will begin in early 2026 after the car starts rolling off the assembly line at Renault’s manufacturing facility in Novo Mesto, Slovenia. Final pricing has not been confirmed, but it will eventually get a sister model from Dacia, which will cost even less, with a starting price of €18,000 ($20,700), and which could be built in the same plant.
