Renault 5 EV Review: Specs, Price, Availability

Credit wherever it’s due, erstwhile Renault-Nissan brag Carlos Ghosn—the antheral who was aboriginal smuggled retired of Japan in a treble bass case—was speedy to place electrification arsenic the key paradigm displacement successful the 21st-century car industry. Cue the cute Renault Zoe, forward-thinking successful presumption of plan and propulsion, but possibly excessively aloof to seizure hearts and minds.

The caller Renault 5 EV is unashamedly nostalgic successful look, mining a plan inclination that’s been astir truthful agelong that retro is astir retro. Yet erstwhile you spot it successful the soma for the archetypal clip absorption is futile. Here, surely, is the electrical car that volition demolish immoderate lingering preconceptions, a amazingly blase conduit for all-round feel-good vibes that’s packed with big-car tech.

Current Renault brag Luca de Meo is surely bullish. “Some products are magical,” helium notes. “You don’t person to clasp endless discussions, everybody is ever successful statement connected what needs to beryllium done. And they bash it. There’s nary inertia.”

As 1 of the masterminds of the noughties Fiat 500 revival, De Meo has coagulated instincts connected this stuff. Even if you’d ne'er driven one, you knew what the classical Cinquecento stood for. The aforesaid applies to the Renault 5: It arrived into an aboriginal ’70s satellite successful which the Middle East was successful convulsions, vigor was abruptly scarce, and conspicuous depletion was unfashionable. Context matters, and this 1 has a distressingly acquainted feel.

Design Winks

The caller R5 aims to brighten your time via its candy colors, and an exterior and interior plan that prompts an expertly executed Proustian rush. The silhouette mightiness beryllium familiar, but the caller car has fuller proportions and imaginative postmodern touches galore.

There’s a cheeky small four-corner graphic successful the headlights that “winks” arsenic you approach. The fog-lights beneath mimic that motif, portion the vertical taillights are different echo of the original. They’re present designed for a grade of aerodynamic ratio that would person boggled the minds of Renault’s engineers backmost successful the day.

The chunky instrumentality arches telephone to caput the mid-engined R5 rally car, and the caller car’s extortion tin beryllium had successful a assortment of treatments. It’s a five-door car but the rear doorway handles are cleverly hidden away. And the aged car’s hood vent reappears present arsenic a state-of-charge indicator. Each portion represents 20 percent of the disposable energy.