Renault 5 Review (2024-)
Renault 5 cars for sale
5.0
Expert review
Pros
Attractive styling and general sense of fun
Impressive levels of standard equipment at a competitive price
Plenty of interior space for a small car
Cons
Real-world range a little disappointing
Some slightly flimsy-feeling switchgear
Rear doors could open wider
The CarGurus verdict
The Renault 5 is a brilliant little electric car. It’s got the functionality, value and common-sense stuff sorted, yet it’s also good to drive and so brilliant to look at that it’s got real ‘want one’ appeal.
Yes, there are a few niggling issues with some quality aspects in the cabin and the real-world range, but nevertheless this is currently our favourite affordable electric car.
What is the Renault 5 E-Tech?
The Renault 5 E-Tech is an electric supermini that, at 3.9 metres long and 2.0 metres wide including door mirrors, is smaller than a VW Polo. It’s only available with an electric powertrain – there are no petrol or hybrid options – so you may want to look to options like the Toyota Yaris or Suzuki Swift if you’re after an efficient, petrol-powered small car.
Key rivals to the new Renault 5 E-Tech include the electric MINI Cooper E, Citroen e-C3, Fiat 500e, Fiat Grande Panda and Hyundai Inster, all of which have arrived throughout 2024 in a rush of sub-£25,000 electric cars. Not that we’re complaining – more affordable electric cars is exactly what the market needs, and the Renault 5 is undoubtedly one of the best. Not just because the modern-retro looks are so engaging, but also because it can still seat five if you really need it to, the boot is a useful size, the equipment and pricing is great, and it’s fun to drive while also being comfortable to ride in.
The Renault 5 sits on a new platform, called the AmpR platform, which will also underpin the forthcoming Renault 4, as well as various new electric Nissan models.
You can choose between two lithium-ion batteries – a 40kWh lithium-iron phosphate (LFP) pack that’s good for a WLTP range of up to 194 miles, while the 52kWh nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) battery manages up to 255 miles. In Renault speak, they’re known as the Urban Range and Comfort Range models.
We’ve already mentioned those looks, but let’s face it, one of the main reasons that the Renault 5 has caused such a stir is because it looks so good. The lurid Pop Green (which is actually standard on the top-spec Renault 5 Iconic Five) and Pop Yellow colours that it’s been launched with are particularly striking but you can get more subdued tones if you want, including a rather lovely Gordini-inspired dark blue with subtle gold highlights.
Those colours are only some of the design aspects inspired by the original Renault 5; the font graphics, the upholstery, the dash design and more, all hark back to the iconic 1970s Renault 5. For all that, it also looks modern, chunky and cute, and is arguably one of very few electric cars that manages to be both sensible and aspirational.
How practical is it?
The Renault 5 is reasonanly practical by small car standards. It's is a five-door car, so access to the back isn’t too bad. The rear doors would benefit from opening a touch wider, but that’s a small niggle, and once you’re in there’s room for a couple of average-sized adults to sit comfortably.
There’s no centre rear armrest, unfortunately, but it’s light enough and comfy enough back there that the kids will be perfectly happy even on longer journeys. The rear seats fold 60/40, too, so you can get chunkier items in if you need to, but the 326-litre boot is a very decent size for a small car like this; it’s bigger than you get in most rivals, and a medium-sized dog or a lightweight single buggy will fit in pretty easily. There’s no cable storage in the nose of the Renault 5, but there is some storage beneath the boot floor which’ll be ideal for keeping your charging cable out of the way.
The cabin up front in the 5 is very functional, and also looks great. The colourful, retro-inspired recycled seat upholstery is very cool, especially in the Heather Yellow that matches the Pop Yellow exterior paintwork of our test car. The seats are also comfortable (although the lumbar adjustment is only standard on the Iconic Five), while the steering wheel has adjustment for both reach and rake, so that most drivers will be able to get comfortable.
Another design curio is the ‘e-pop shifter’, which most of us would call the gear selector. This stalk rises from the right-hand side of the steering column, like an indicator stalk but with a clear plastic tip that’s 3D printed and can be changed if you fancy a different colour. We’d be more worried about the fact that the damping of the shifter itself is quite poor, and it feels a bit brittle – it’s the only bit of the cabin that we don’t like.
Between the variety of materials, neat design touches like the illuminated graphics on the dash (which change colour with the drive modes) and physical buttons for the air-con, volume control and screen dimming, the 5’s interior not only looks great but is also very practical and user-friendly.
What's it like to drive?
While the Renault 5 is fun to drive, it’s no hot hatch if that’s what you’re hoping for. The performance version of the Renault 5 will come with the Alpine A290, while the electric MINI Cooper E and SE both feel much more overtly sporting than the Renault 5. That said, we still really like the way the 5 drives.
The top-spec, 52kWh Iconic Five test car that we spent time in has a 148bhp electric motor powering the front wheels (you can’t get the Renault 5 with four-wheel drive) for a 0-62mph time of 8.0 seconds.
That feels more than punchy enough, especially around town where the 5 feels nippy and responsive, thanks not only to the decent acceleration but also to the quick steering. With only 2.6-turns lock-to-lock, you don’t need to wind loads of steering on to fling the little Renault gamely through a roundabout, which helps to make it a really tidy little about-town car. A tight turning circle of 10.3m also helps to make the 5 useful in awkward car parks.
Having said all of that, the 5 is fairly wide and short, which is one reason it looks so cute and chunky, and has such a good stance on the road. While that may not be ideal in really tight city roads, where the narrower Hyundai Inster might do better, it does mean that the 5 feels very planted and confident on the motorway or on a fast country road. It swings into fast bends willingly and predictably, and it all gelled nicely whether we were in town or our on the faster roads around Denmark, where we tested the Renault 5 on a Car of the Year event.
Regenerative braking is a touch limited, as you only have the default setting – which is very light and easy to get on with – or one heavier ‘B’ setting. It’s likely that a three-stage adaptive brake regen system like that on the Renault Megane and Scenic will make its way onto the Renault 5 in future.
Thankfully, it’s also comfy. You get 18-inch wheels as standard, and our test car was on Continental EcoContact rubber with surprisingly chunky 55-section sidewalls (195/55 R18 tyre size, if you’re interested). This is worth mentioning as it really helps to keep the ride pliant, and it shows in the way the 5 manages to handle tidily yet also feel relaxed on scruffy roads. It’s more direct and enjoyable to drive than the Fiat 500e, but it’s not as firm and sporty as the electric MINI Cooper, and that happy medium is about perfect for the Renault 5.
We haven’t driven the smaller-batteried 40kWh Renault 5 yet, which gets a bit less power at 121bhp, but the 52kWh car is really brilliantly judged as a town-to-motorway small car.
Technology, equipment & infotainment
Every Renault 5 gets a landscape-orientation, 10-inch colour touchscreen that’s your portal to Google Maps and features a very good charger search function, as well as wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. There’s also a digital driver’s readout (7-inch on the Evolution or 10-inch on the other trims) behind the wheel that you can alter to show your nav, or to prioritise the speed readout.
Entry-level Evolution trim does without adaptive cruise control, but it will get 18-inch alloy wheels, parking sensors, keyless entry, climate control and LED headlights. You can’t get the 52kWh battery on Evolution trim, though, which is why most buyers will opt for Techno, which can be ordered with either battery option. Techno also gets the raised ‘bonnet bump’ charging indicator, two-tone paint, reversing camera and electrically folding side mirrors, while Iconic Five adds a heated steering wheel and seats, and a host of additional safety aids including blind spot warning. Renault has promised to bring in a new top-level trim each year on the 5, in keeping with the fashion industry, which will have new colours and 3D Printed style and practicality solutions.
Another new feature for the 5 is the ‘Reno’ avatar, which is an AI character on the touchscreen that can help you to find information in the handbook, respond to voice control requests, or give updates and info when it deems them useful. However, we’ve not experienced it as it wasn’t on our test car. What may be good news to you, is that you can turn the Reno assistant off. In fact, you can choose to save it as off in your ‘My Safety’ settings, along with lane-keep assist and speed limit warnings, and you can then activate your settings easily via a button near the wheel. It’s a really clever way of making the assistance systems more controllable. There’s even a physical button on the top of the touchscreen that allows you to turn the screen off at night, so the Renault 5 is not very ‘screen dependant’ at all compared with a lot of modern cars.
More good news is that the 5 gets a heat pump, which will help with winter efficiency and driving range. The battery is also thermally managed, so the car will pre-warm it for charging or cool it when necessary, to help with charging speeds and battery longevity.
Renault 5 E-Tech running costs
Pricing hasn’t been confirmed yet for the Renault 5, as orders only open in the UK at the beginning of 2025 with deliveries expected in March. However, the entry-level Evolution 40 is likely to start at under £23,000, and then it’ll be a £2,000 step up to techno. The 52kWh Renault 5 techno is expected to cost from £27,000, while the Iconic Five (which is only available with the 52kWh battery) is likely to come in at £29,000. Special editions like the tennis-inspired Roland Garros model will most likely cost around £30,000.
That equipment list is very generous at the price, and will certainly make most people considering the much more expensive MINI and Fiat 500e think twice.
Our only quibble with the Renault is that the real-world range seemed underwhelming on our test drive, which took place in warm temperatures and at moderate driving speeds. We were seeing around 170 to 180 miles per charge from the 52kWh Comfort Range car, which is a touch disappointing given the 255-mile claimed WLTP combined figure, and means that winter real-world range will probably drop to as little as 140 miles.
Renault 5 E-Tech reliability
It’s too early to know how the Renault 5 will stack up in terms of reliability, but when Kia, Hyundai, MG, Toyota and Peugeot are all offering warranties of five years or more on their electric cars, it’s disappointing that Renault is sticking with a three-year, 60,000-mile warranty. The battery in the Renault 5 is covered for eight years and 100,000 miles.
- The Renault 5 E-Tech charges at up to 80kW for the smaller battery, or up to 100kW for the bigger battery, which is competitive with those rivals and will get you a 10-80% rapid charge in around 30 minutes. It uses CCS and Type 2 sockets – just like almost every other electric car. That means that the Renault 5 is compatible with almost all public charging stations in the UK and Western Europe
- Charging at home will take between six and nine hours from a normal 7kW wallbox, which is how most buyers will charge for the majority of the time (almost all domestic residences in the UK can only support 7kW charging). The Renault 5 also has AC charging speeds of up to 11kW if you have access to one of these faster AC chargers; they’re often in industrial estates, or kerbside and lamppost chargers are sometimes capable of charging at up to 11kW.
- Renault is introducing vehicle-to-load (V2L) and vehicle-to-grid (V2G) bi-directional charging on the Renault 5 – albeit later in 2025 after the initial launch. V2L means that you can plug-in and power any electrical item. For instance, you might want to run a portable fridge off the car’s battery while you’re camping. You can also set a limit for how much battery charge you want the car to save, so that you can still get home or to a rapid charger having used the V2L for powering your other devices. V2G meanwhile means that you can send power from the car’s battery back to the grid, which can earn you money and reduce the strain on the grid at peak hours. You do need a compatible home charger to do this, though.
- If you want the best value: We’d go for mid-spec Techno rather than Evolution, as then you’ve got a choice of batteries – and don’t be afraid to go for the 40kWh LFP battery if you don’t need the longer range, as it’ll save you money and this tried-and-tested battery tech that won’t let you down. This trim also gets the style stuff that most will want, not to mention a reversing camera.
- If you want the best company car: Go for the Iconic Five, which is only available with the 52kWh battery (most will want the longer range, anyway) and this trim does have really excellent levels of standard equipment, so you don’t need to add anything other than maybe one of the optional colours.
- If you want the best urban commuter: If you spend most of your time in town, we’d stick with the 40kWh LFP battery in techno trim; it’s great value, and the range and charging will be spot on for an urban lifestyle. Just remember to add heated seats, and that’s really all you need.
- If you want the best family car: Go for the 52kWh in Techno, and let the kids help with picking the colour and personalisation aspects. They’ll absolutely love it.
