The Renault 5 EV Is an Instant Smash

Credit where it’s due, former Renault-Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn—the man who was later smuggled out of Japan in a double bass case—was quick to identify electrification as the key paradigm shift in the 21st-century car industry. Cue the cute Renault Zoe, forward-thinking in terms of design and propulsion, but perhaps too aloof to capture hearts and minds.

The new Renault 5 EV is unashamedly nostalgic in look, mining a design trend that’s been around so long that retro is almost retro. Yet when you see it in the flesh for the first time resistance is futile. Here, surely, is the electric car that will demolish any lingering preconceptions, a surprisingly sophisticated conduit for all-round feel-good vibes that’s packed with big-car tech.

Current Renault boss Luca de Meo is certainly bullish. “Some products are magical,” he notes. “You don’t have to hold endless discussions, everybody is always in agreement on what needs to be done. And they do it. There’s no inertia.”

As one of the masterminds of the noughties Fiat 500 revival, De Meo has solid instincts on this stuff. Even if you’d never driven one, you knew what the classic Cinquecento stood for. The same applies to the Renault 5: It arrived into an early ’70s world in which the Middle East was in convulsions, energy was suddenly scarce, and conspicuous consumption was unfashionable. Context matters, and this one has a distressingly familiar feel.

Design Winks

The new R5 aims to brighten your day via its candy colors, and an exterior and interior design that prompts an expertly executed Proustian rush. The silhouette might be familiar, but the new car has fuller proportions and imaginative postmodern touches galore.

There’s a cheeky little four-corner graphic in the headlights that “winks” as you approach. The fog-lights below mimic that motif, while the vertical taillights are another echo of the original. They’re now designed for a degree of aerodynamic efficiency that would have boggled the minds of Renault’s engineers back in the day.

The chunky wheel arches call to mind the mid-engined R5 rally car, and the new car’s roof can be had in a variety of treatments. It’s a five-door car but the rear door handles are cleverly hidden away. And the old car’s hood vent reappears here as a state-of-charge indicator. Each strip represents 20 percent of the available energy.

We’re long past the days of carmakers repurposing combustion vehicles for EV duty. The new 5 uses a bespoke platform—it’s called AmpR—so it has a flat floor and longish wheelbase despite measuring only 3.9 meters (12.8 feet) in overall length. The battery’s case helps stiffen the structure, and money and weight are saved because there’s no need to accommodate a regular gearbox, exhaust, and other legacy components. That case, by the way, is made in a facility in France, where a Renault gigafactory is due to come online next year. By then, the whole car will be locally produced, improving sustainability.

Prices start at £22,995 (just shy of $30,000), which is temptingly low, rising to around £30,000—yet the R5 is not a cheap car in terms of its engineering spec. Multilink rear suspension and disc brakes all-round are unusual in this class, suggesting a big-car character in a compact package.

Also welcome is a bidirectional charging system, which means you can use a connector to run three-pin appliances off the car. Kia and Hyundai offer this flexibility, but not all do (we’re looking at you, Volvo EX90), and so it confirms the scale of Renault’s ambition.

A heat pump is standard to help efficiency in lower-temperature conditions. Two battery sizes are available, 40 kWh and 52 kWh, with rapid DC charging at 80 kW and 100 kW. This should see both replenish from 15 to 80 percent in 30 minutes or so, pretty much the class standard.

The bigger-batteried version, as tested here, delivers a claimed range of 255 miles WLTP (think closer to 220 in reality, which is still enough for most use cases). The R5 can also handle a 11-kW AC charge at home, if you have the capacity. Buy the Renault Mobilize wallbox, select the appropriate tariff, and you also have the option of selling energy back to your supplier. More grown-up stuff. As is the way it drives.

Polished Performance

The original R5 was a car whose owners spanned the entire social spectrum, a novel development in the ’70s. The electric one has the manners and mien of a bigger, smarter car and has a similarly classless appeal. The most powerful version has a 110-kW motor (that’s 148 bhp), which is enough to keep pace with most things, both on the motorway or if you venture onto more entertaining territory.

The R5 has a quick steering ratio—2.6 turns lock-to-lock—so it’s a little darty at times, and if you get greedy on cornering speeds it’s possible to overwhelm the skinny tires. Better to ease back a bit and enjoy what is mostly a very accomplished machine.

It’s better dynamically than the Fiat 500e, less jarring than the Mini Cooper Electric. A “multi-sense” button on the steering wheel lets you flip between Eco, Comfort, Sport or Individual drive modes, which alters steering feel and throttle response. We left it in Comfort most of the time. You can also store preferred settings via a Perso button, eliminating lane departure and speed limit warning bongs among others. The top Iconic trim level brings level-two automated driving and hands-free self-parking, but in a car of this modest size that’s surely gilding the lily.

There’s superior brake feel, too, which is not always a given on an EV. A controller blends the friction and regenerative braking with impressive alacrity. Most impressive is the R5’s ride, a very polished effort, largely due to well-judged damping and that sophisticated rear axle. Sure, it could use a bit more power, but that’s coming soon in the shape of the Alpine A290. It also weighs a fraction under 1.5 metric tons, which is double that of the original, but featherweight by EV standards.

Recycled Ride

It’s good inside, too. Choose the Techno or Iconic trim levels and the fabrics used are 100 percent recycled. Ours was a denim that looked and felt better than it sounds. (Renault claims the entire car uses 19.4 percent recycled materials.) The driving position is terrific, despite the fact that the battery pack sits under the floor, elevating everything somewhat.

The seats are another nod to past R5 glories, featuring single-piece backrests and rectangular bolsters. Rear seat space is average at best, the rear compartment lower rent than up front. The denim door trim is replaced by plastic back there, for example.

The driver gets two digital screens, the 10.25-inch customizable central touchscreen proving easy enough to use. Interestingly, Renault has kept physical controls for climate control, which we approve of, but on the downside there are no fewer than four column stalks. The drive selector sits at the top on the right side of the steering column; it’s inspired by a Chanel lipstick and can be personalized, apparently. But although there’s a clear 3D-printed element at the end of it that looks like a park button, it’s merely cosmetic (no pun intended). A curious and rather annoying omission. Maybe they could fix that as part of the annual spec change Renault is promising, reinforcing the car’s fashion-conscious remit. It’s also a little fiddly to operate, especially if you’re doing a three-point turn.

The priciest spec has Google built into its infotainment system, so that the navigation works with the car to plan routes based on range. If you need to recharge on the way, it’ll also precondition the battery to optimize the charging process. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity are also available. Voice activation is via an avatar called Reno (similar to Mini’s Spike character). During our test he popped up unprompted offering to cool the cabin with maximum air con. But the digital assistance doesn’t stop there: The R5 is also ChatGPT-enabled.

In the battle for EV supremacy, character is one of the key attributes. It’s rare to be able to pronounce a new car an instant smash hit, but the Renault 5 is a finely judged package. It looks great, goes well, and is backed by a persuasive tech story. Renault also plans to keep it fresh with regular updates and special editions. What’s not to love?