New Renault Twingo, the little one that challenges the Chinese electric cars

The “electrical nostalgia” operation continues apace Renault which after having marketed the Renault 5 E-Tech Electric and shown the first details of the Renault 4 E-Tech Electric, reveals to the general public at the 2024 Paris Motor Show the Renault Twingo E-Tech Electric in versione concept.

The new standard Twingo, the exclusively electric one and with a confirmed price under 20,000 euroswe will see it in 2026. For now we must content ourselves with observing the Renault Twingo E-Tech Electric Prototype more closely, already knowing that it will be very similar to the final model and that its task is also to “save” European electric cars from the advance of low-cost Chinese EVs.

An epochal challenge that Renault faces with its Ampere electrical division and increasingly refined industrial and engineering processes that will significantly reduce the production costs of the new Twingo.

The challenge to Chinese electric cars

Behind the rounded shapes inspired by those of the first Renault Twingo from 1992, already anticipated among other things by CEO Luca de Meo during the Capital Market Day in November 2023, Renault’s desire to take a new leap forward is hidden in terms of research and development.

Renault

Renault Twingo E-Tech Electric Prototype, la vista frontale

The aim is to make the way of producing electric cars in Europe more competitive, with the ambitious goal of offering a battery-powered city car built in the Old Continent that has a list price of less than 20,000 euros.

Renault

Renault Twingo E-Tech Electric Prototype

Leap motor

At the moment, in fact, the only electric cars sold under twenty thousand euros are the Dacia Spring and the Leapmotor T03, both built in China. Above this price threshold are the representatives of the European “electric new wave” such as the electric Fiat Grande Panda and the Citroen e-C3, sold for 24,900 and 23,900 euros respectively.

Fiat

The recipe for containing production costs and the final price

Behind this ambitious goal of making the Renault Twingo the most economical of European electric cars there is a great deal of planning and industrial strategy aimed at reduce production times and costs on the assembly line.

Renault

Renault Twingo E-Tech Electric Prototype, rear three-quarter view

In practice, not being able to compete with China on the cost of labour, raw materials and energy, Renault is focusing onrefinement, simplification and speeding up of production processes with a recipe made up of various ingredients.

The main ingredient of this recipe is the reduction of production times of the new Twingo which will translate into a reduction in costs for the company. If today a Renault Clio is assembled in around 14 hours and for the new Renault 5 it takes just under 10 hours, for the electric Renault Twingo it will take “much less than 10 hours“, as he has told Automotive News Europe the cto Gilles Le Borgne.

Renault

Renault Twingo E-Tech Electric Prototype, detail of the fixed panoramic roof

In Europe, no one is currently able to produce a small electric car in the same timeframe and this makes Renault extremely competitive on the industrial and commercial front.

For the new Twingo, Renault has decided to use an adapted version of the AmpR Small platform which already forms the basis for the Renault 5 E-Tech Electric and the Renault 4 E-Tech Electric. Steel body pressed with traditional methods, therefore, and none Gigapress in stile Tesla.

Renault

Renault Twingo E-Tech Electric Prototype

Renault 5 E-Tech Electric

The share of components and parts in common between the Renault 5 and the Twingo will be 70%an element that will significantly contribute to reducing production times and costs. The architecture of the Twingo will be practically the same as the R5, Le Borgne always says, including the entire front end with a reduced track, but with a rigid axle at the rear instead of the multilink.

See all the news on the Paris Motor Show

A famous quote attributed to Julius Caesar reads: “If you cannot defeat your enemy, make him your friend.” This is more or less what Renault did by deciding to rely on a Chinese partner for the design of the new Twingo. The entire project phase will last just two years, a time defined as “record” by De Meo himself. Production will instead be European.

Renault

Renault Twingo E-Tech Electric Prototype, detail of the front headlights

At the moment it is not known which Chinese company will help Renault speed up the development times and reduce costs of the new Twingo. The decision comes after Volkswagen chose not to support Renault in the development of a small shared electric car based on Twingo.

For the production of the Renault Twingo starting from 2026 there is already an agreement with the Slovenian government for the use of the Renault plant in New Townthe factory where the previous Twingo and the smart forfour came out and where the Clio is assembled today.

The Renault factory in Novo Mesto, Slovenia

The planned production capacity for the Revoz plant in Novo Mesto, Slovenia, is 150,000 cars per year.