Cheaper than a BYD Dolphin or MG4! New Renault Twingo to be reinvented as $33,000 electric vehicle
Pictures and first details of the all-new Renault Twingo EV have been released ahead of its
2026 debut with the French car-maker announcing that the small hatch will be reincarnated
as the brand’s most affordable EV yet.
Widely seen as a French fight back against the influx of cheap Chinese imports in Europe,
when it lands the next-gen Renault Twingo is primed to cost less than €20,000 ($A33,000)
before subsidies – around $5000 cheaper than the current BYD Dolphin in Australia.
Promised to be a real “game-changer” when it arrives, Renault has not revealed the Twingo
EV’s full specification other than that it will come with best-in-class efficiency of
10kWh/100km.
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The French car-maker also says, thanks in part to its construction over its lifecycle, it delivers
a 75 per cent CO2 saving over any current EV sold in 2023.
Designed to sit below the Renault 5 EV that lands in 2024, the Twingo will be small, taking
up 20 per cent less space than the average car in Europe making it easy to park and
manoeuvre in a city.
To keep development costs low, the Twingo EV will be based on the same CMF-BEV
architecture used on both the Renault 5, the incoming Nissan Micra and the Renault 4 SUV
that will arrive in 2025.
Unusually, instead of being developed by Renault itself the Twingo will be designed and
engineered by the car-maker’s new Ampere EV division that has been set-up to solely focus
on making electric cars and the software needed for them. The advantage, says senior Renault suits, is the smaller company can work as quickly and efficiently as some of the cutting-edge Chinese brands.
Following its reveal overnight, Renault’s CEO also hinted that other brands might join forces
with the French brand to spin-off their own take on the Renault Twingo to help share costs
and, potentially, lower its price even further.
When the new Renault Twingo EV arrives in 2026 it will have its work cut-out to make an
impression it what will be a crowded segment. Not only will it do battle with the new
Citroen e-C3, it will have to fight it out with a battery-powered Fiat Panda, the new VW ID.1
and ID.2 and at least two affordable rivals from the Hyundai and Kia.
Renault Australia is yet to confirm the model for our market, but as the cheap EVs wars continue to heat up, we’re hopeful of a debut Down Under.
