The incoming Renault 5 supermini has been spotted testing in the UK for the first time, ahead of customer deliveries beginning in the coming months.

The French brand’s next small EV – which Autocar will drive for the first time in a matter of weeks – will rival the likes of the Mini Cooper E and Fiat 500e. 

It is the first in a wave of retro electric cars coming from Renault over the next few years. 

In just a few weeks, it will be joined by a new Renault 4, using much of the same technical make-up. Based on the Renault 4Ever concept, it will sit higher and wider, in a bid to capture a share of the ever-popular compact crossover market.

After that will come an evolved version of the similarly nostalgic Twingo concept.

The 5 was revealed in production guise at the Geneva motor show earlier this year, remaining faithful to the acclaimed concept from 2021.

Renault is aiming to defend its position in the increasingly competitive small car market, and the 5 is testament to the company’s commitment to providing affordable cars in the EV era.

The launch price of €25,000 (approximately £21,400) in Europe is expected to translate to less than £25,000 when it arrives in the UK. That will make it one of the most affordable EVs on the market, undercutting some of today’s cheapest.

Platform

The 5 is based on a new EV architecture dubbed Ampr Small (formerly CMF-BEV), which shares much of its core structure with that used for the Nissan Juke and Renault Clio.

Using the fundamentals of an existing platform is said to have cut development costs by 30%, compared with engineering a bespoke platform like that which underpins the £28,195 Fiat 500e.

Renault engineers say driver engagement was a priority in the development of the 5, which is why it has multi-link suspension at the rear, rather than the torsion beam design used on the Clio.

Jean-Sébastien Blazy, vice-president for vehicle performance, previously told Autocar: “This is our secret in order to give our car very good agility and very good steering response, and to ensure the stability of the car in extreme manoeuvres, like avoiding a kid or an event on the road.”

Blazy added that the 5 “will be totally comparable in terms of vehicle dynamics with the Mégane [EV]”.

However, engineers acknowledge that the larger car's steering has been criticised for being “too sensitive”, so they have slackened the 5’s rack from a 12:1 ratio to 13:7.

Prioritising dynamics – as well as the need to pack lots of electrical kit into a body slightly smaller than that of the Clio, at 3.92m long and 1.8m wide – spurred several key developments to reduce weight and space.

Power and battery

The 5’s new motor, for example, uses a new inverter that cuts 15kg in mass and 3cm in length. The nickel-manganese-cobalt batteries, meanwhile, use a simplified layout in which cells are batched into larger square-shaped modules.

The 40kWh pack uses three modules with 31 cells apiece, with a total weight of 240kg, while the 52kWh pack gets four groups of 46 cells, totalling 300kg.

As such, the 5 tips the scales at just 1372kg with the entry-level 40kWh battery. The original Zoe had around half that capacity (22kWh) yet weighed nearly 100kg more, at 1468kg.

With the bigger 52kWh pack, the 5 weighs 1449kg, on a par with the rival Peugeot e-208. Renault’s engineers are bullish about the performance implications of these weight reduction efforts. One told Autocar that the e-208 was used as a benchmark in tests at Renault’s track in Aubevoye and the 5 was around 13mph faster through 60mph-plus bends.

The 5 will be offered with a choice of three motor outputs: 94bhp, 121bhp and 148bhp, with the mid-rung option claimed to deliver 0-62mph in less than 8.0sec. Autocar understands that the entry-level motor is unlikely to be offered in the UK.

Both batteries will be available here, though, with Renault claiming a range of 186 miles for the 40kWh car and 249 miles for the 52kWh version.

Cars with the smaller battery get 80kW DC fast-charging capabilities; 52kWh cars are boosted to 100kW. In either guise, the 5 is able to supply up to 11kW to external devices via its charging port, which means it can effectively become a part of the electrical grid.

This would allow owners to charge overnight when power is cheap and then sell energy back during peak hours at a profit. In France, Renault will offer this functionality via a subscription to its nascent e-mobility platform, Mobilize.

Interior 

The 5’s interior melds the clean-cut styling of the Mégane with a brutalistic look inspired by the classic 5 Turbo.

The 10.0in instrument and infotainment screens are encased in chunky plastic shrouds designed to recall the homologation special’s analogue gauges, while the seats feature thick, corduroy-style padded inserts.

The dashboard, too, is inspired by the rally car, protruding into the cabin like a shelf and trimmed in one of several distinctive textiles depending on the chosen spec level.

Techno, for example, features swathes of denim. In all cases, leather is omitted, and 18% of the car’s material content is recycled, including 41kg of polymers.

Design

The “retro futuristic” shape of the new Renault 5 E-Tech does more than merely remind people of the great days of the original R5, according to its designers. 

Group design boss Laurens van den Acker believes it gives the marque an iconic look and shape with the same kind of long-lasting ability as the BMW Mini or Fiat 500; perhaps even the Porsche 911.

The adoption of the new R5 shape was a highly pragmatic decision made by group CEO Luca de Meo when he first arrived in the company three and a half years ago. The concept was already complete in the design studio, having been created on spec by designers who realised the company needed to replace both Clio and Twingo, and couldn’t afford to do both.

The new 5 was their answer — and as van den Acker explains — de Meo seized it as the emblem for his now-famous Renaulution plan.

Van den Acker believes Renault will reap big benefits from using an emotional, retro-modern design, but he acknowledges there could be problems at replacement time for companies who have such designs — and nothing else. Renault isn’t in that position, he says. “We have other B-segment models,” he explains. “Led by Luca, we believe the 5 could go 20 years. But the Clio will change with the times.”

The exterior blends retro and modern cues, based largely on the concept but adopting a few subtle modifications for production: the front lighting signatures have been reworked, for example, so the headlight projectors now use more conventional blocks of LEDs, rather than the diffuse units on the concept.

These display a small square when the main beam isn’t in use, said to be inspired by the human pupil, and ‘wink’ as you approach the car with the key fob.

A charging indicator has been integrated into the offset hump on the bonnet, which references the asymmetrical cooling vent on the original 5.

This indicator fills a ‘5’ logo with light to represent the level of charge left in the batteries, allowing drivers to quickly gauge range without having to get in the car or check the app. Otherwise, the front end retains its blend of hard edges and swooping curves, mimicking the original 5.

The rear is similarly faithful to the concept, although the light bar that previously spanned the width of the hatch is gone. It has been replaced with a slab of black plastic bearing a ‘Renault’ word mark and new ‘5’ badging.

Aerodynamics were a key consideration in adapting the concept for production: the roof-mounted lip spoiler, which harks back to the 5 Turbo, nets a claimed five miles of range; the mid-range Techno trim’s clean-faced alloy wheels gain another five; and the slatted rear-light design provides a boost of about four.

Many of these interior and exterior cues – and much of the 5’s technical make-up – will be shared with the new Renault 4 compact crossover, which will be revealed later this year as the final evolution of 2022’s chunky 4Ever concept.

The smaller, 1990s-style Twingo – due on sale in 2026 – will also use a version of the Ampr Small platform but with an even more stringent focus on cutting production costs and maximising efficiency. The 5 will be built at Renault’s ElectriCity hub in northern France from mid-2025.

Its motors will be produced at the Cléon factory, which built engines for the original 5, as well as many other models including the Alpine A110, Renault Estafette van and even early Twingos.

Vehicle assembly will take place alongside the Mégane E-Tech at Douai, where batteries will also be produced when a new gigafactory is opened in mid-2025.

By 2030, these batteries will have a 35% smaller carbon footprint than those in the Zoe, claims Renault.

Even third-party OEMs will supply parts from within 300km (186 miles) of Douai, ensuring that the 5 is completely European in provenance.