Renault R5: the new 100% electric city car is a real eye-catcher, a winning return?

A hit from the 80s, the Renault 5 takes a leap into the future with a modernized, 100% electric model with strong appeal. The city car, unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show, hopes to make a resounding return to a hyper-competitive market.

[Updated February 26, 2024 at 11:10 a.m.] It was in Switzerland, as part of the Geneva Motor Show, that Renault lifted the final veil on its new R5, returning in 2024 forty years after it left the manufacturing plants having left its mark on the minds of millions of motorists. Definitive because the French manufacturer has multiplied the teasers, particularly since December, to give a taste of its future city car and fuel impatience among its customers. It even unveiled, in May 2023, a special Roland-Garros edition during the French Open Tennis Championships which was to be 95% faithful to the production model.

Assembled in its factory in Douai, in Hauts-de-France, this 21st century R5 will be 100% electric, part of the diamond brand's project to release six "green" models by 2030 with its new Ampere entity. In an increasingly competitive market, the R5 E-Tech, which will replace the Zoé in the Renault catalog, will try to find a place for itself, alongside the new Peugeot e-208 (more expensive) and Citroën ë-C3 (cheaper) while trying to counter competition from Asia and mainly China. Set to become the new queen of electric city cars at Renault, the R5 E-Tech was undoubtedly the most anticipated release of the year. Let’s go and discover this revisited model.

Renault had already communicated on the city car's engines even before its appearance on its stand in Geneva. The manufacturer will offer two NMC (nickel-manganese-cobalt) batteries. At its launch, the R5 E-Tech will be equipped with a 52 kWh battery, which will give it a range of up to 400 km in the WLTP cycle. It will then be available with a smaller battery, 40 kWh, which should allow it to travel 310 kilometers on a single charge. The electric motor, produced in Cléon in Normandy, will be offered with three power levels: 150, 120 and 95 horsepower. The maximum speed is electronically limited so as not to exceed 150 kilometers/hour.

The small electrified city car, presented at the end of February as part of the Geneva Motor Show, will be marketed from September. The version with the 52 kWh battery will be the first to be delivered, followed by the version with the smaller 40 kWh battery. For its most impatient customers, Renault had opened its pre-orders even before its official presentation with the possibility of purchasing a “R5 R Pass digital queue skipper” for 150 euros.

If the prices are not yet official, at the end of November, Renault announced that the Renault R5 E-Tech would cost "around 25,000 euros" at entry level, namely without additional options and with the smaller 40 kWh battery. With the 2024 ecological bonus set at 4,000 euros, the price of the city car will therefore barely exceed 20,000 euros. For the most modest households, eligible for a discount of 7,000 euros, you will have to pay around 18,000 euros to get behind the wheel of the new R5.

Initially, Luca Di Meo, boss of Renault, wanted to display a base price below 20,000 euros, excluding bonuses. This is what Citroën has managed to do, which will offer, only in 2025, another version of its ë-C3 from 19,900 euros before deduction of the ecological bonus. The R5 E-Tech will however evolve a notch above in terms of its equipment but will still come up against competition from the small Citroën, as well as that of the Fiat 500e and the future Dacia Spring as well as the very successful Peugeot e-208 at a much higher price (34,000 euros).