Renault is bringing back the cute Twingo as an electric car. Right now, this is the least expensive of the three EV compacts the company makes. Both the price and the range are small. Renault is seeing a rise in electric car sales. After redesigning the R5 and R4, which now include the fast, widebody R5 Turbo 3E, the company is bringing back a favorite from the 1990s as a cheap, short-range electric car. Although it’s unlikely to happen here, the Twingo is a cute car you might see at the rental car counter on your next trip to Paris. When it first came out, the Twingo was a small, compact hatchback that showed off the best of the French car industry. The face looked like an emoji, and it came in many bright colors. However, it wasn’t very fancy and only had 60 horsepower. It was cheap, fun, and cute, like a Skittle that you could drive. Because it was French, it also ran best when driven like Alain Prost when he was crazy. The new Twingo E-Tech is an electric vehicle (EV), but it still feels cheap. It starts at $23,000, which is a lot less than the Nissan Leaf, and it has bright colors on the outside and inside. It is a little over eight feet long and has a small 27.5 kWh battery pack. It’s not very powerful, with just over 80 horsepower. By European terms, the small battery pack can take you about 163 miles. In the US, however, that number drops to about 140 miles. If that were available, it would be enough for most daily tasks for the average American driver. It would also be enough for a city runabout, which is another thing that has very little chance of happening. But since Renault and Nissan are involved, any lessons learned from France’s use of reasonably priced EVs could be applied to cars on this side of the Atlantic. It’s not impossible to make a very cheap Leaf with a short range. Nissan Canada tried the little Micra for a few years with an unbelievable starting price of less than $10,000. The Twingo is also appealing for reasons other than its low price. The hatchback still weighs about 2600 pounds and has a friendly look. It’s a fun addition to the mix and a useful tool for driving.Let’s hope that the auto business as a whole sees how appealing the new Twingo is, even though it won’t be in stores for a while.
