Renault 5 Review 2024

At the intersection of a compact body style, decent electric range (over 200 miles in the real world), and a dash of style, the Renault 5 E-Tech is pretty hard to beat right now. If you want a small car and want it to be electric then the Renault absolutely needs to be on your shortlist, because it’s competitive on range, performance and price before you even consider how good it looks, how smart the interior and technology is, and the driving experience. The only real reason to discount it is if you regularly travel with taller passengers in the rear seats, as the Renault 5 does fall down here compared to some rivals, and some similarly-priced but physically larger Chinese electric models.

There are a couple of battery options, a couple of power outputs, and three trim levels in the new Renault 5 E-Tech. So far we’ve driven the top-spec 52kWh, 148bhp car in Iconic trim which still feels like a pretty good package for its projected £29,000 or so and has a fantastic feel-good factor, though we suspect the Techno model a rung down, for a few grand less but with the same 52kWh battery pack, could be the smart deal. If you tend to stick to town driving and don’t need as much range, there’s an argument to be made for the entry level Evolution with the smaller 40kWh battery, which will be priced around six grand cheaper than the top model.

Your selection of electric superminis and small cars has definitely got broader in recent years, with existing models like the Peugeot e-208 and Vauxhall Corsa Electric being joined by the Fiat 500 Electric, Citroen e-C3, Dacia Spring, and what’s sure to be the Renault 5 E-Tech’s closest rival, the MINI Cooper Electric. In that little lot there’s a mix of range figures, cabin space and door counts, though in terms of pure numbers, the Renault is pretty competitive, and it arguably has all of them beaten on desirability.

Don’t forget the used options though, not least the Renault Zoe that the 5 E-Tech effectively replaces and still has decent range for its size on its side. The Honda E and older MINI Electric are also options, but don’t expect more than a real-world 100 miles from either.

This is another step in the right direction for Renault, after the excellent Megane and Scenic E-Tech models. No squeaks or rattles, a solid feel from the moment you get in the car, a tactile feel to all your touchpoints (the seats are a particular highlight, with a tweed-like finish that’s warm, comfortable, and pleasingly textured), and a thoughtfully minimal use of fingerprint-attracting gloss black plastic, which always cheapens the feel of a car.

We have just one reservation, which is that the passenger door on our left-hand drive test car was slightly misaligned, and beginning to rub the paint off both it and its neighbouring front wing. But since these first drives tend to take place in early production and even pre-production vehicles, and none of the other cars on the launch had the issue, we suspect it was a one-off incident.

Renault has been nailing the infotainment experience in its recent cars, so it’s no surprise that the 5 E-Tech continues this trend. Once again you get a pair of screens in front of you, and software is Google-based, which generally makes it intuitive, and has the benefit of Google Maps built in. Most of us are probably familiar with that so it takes minimal learning and is one of few systems where you won’t immediately feel the need to plug in your phone (which you can still do, of course).

As Google Maps is embedded too, it has a few useful functions, such as knowing (with pretty impressive accuracy) how much charge you’ll have when you reach your destination, or where you might like to stop to top-up along the way. Outside of the mapping functions, the screen operates quickly and easily too.

The graphics perhaps look a little busy in places but usability is still fine – you won’t have to take your eyes off the road for long to find pertinent information. Nor will you need to faff around in the screens to change the cabin temperature or fan speed, since there’s a row of physical buttons for this below the vents.

One final detail is “Reno”, the Five’s AI-powered and diamond-shaped digital assistant. We presume the French pronounce it like the car brand, or the actor from Leon and Ronin, but with everything set to English, it’s pronounced more like the city in Nevada. We didn’t get a chance to test it out, but the car’s basic functions are simple enough it wasn’t required, either.

The Renault 5 E-Tech is a snip under four metres in length, and this defines its practicality. A lot of modern superminis have ballooned beyond this in order to maintain interior room while the need to package safety gear, comfort and tech has increased, but the Renault is still genuinely small by modern standards.

The tradeoff has to come somewhere, and in the 5 it’s the rear seats, which are comfortable but a little cramped on knee room in particular – putting a 5’8” passenger behind a 5’8” driver is about the limit, so families with tall teenage offspring may hear some complaints. Up front, things are much more like it – in the top-spec Iconic at least, there’s loads of seat and wheel adjustment, and while chunky pillars could make you feel a little hemmed-in, bright colours do a good job of compensating.

One of the reasons for the cramped rear quarters is that Renault has prioritised boot space, and at 326 litres there’s a decent bit of it back there – that’s 116 litres more than you’ll find in a MINI Cooper E, and more even than the larger Peugeot e-208’s 311 litres. It should be fine for most supermini buyers either way.

There are two battery options in the new 5 and they’re tied to different motor outputs. So the smaller 40kWh pack comes with a 118bhp motor, and the 52kWh battery is paired with a 148bhp motor. Those motors sit at the front axle and drive the front wheels too, just like this car’s Renault Zoe predecessor, and indeed the classic Renault 5 (well, mad mid-engined Turbo excepted).

Renault hasn’t yet provided performance figures for the less powerful car, but the 148bhp model will get from 0-62mph in an easy-going 8.0 seconds – not blistering by EV standards, but quicker than some of the entry-level hot hatches of recent years such as the Suzuki Swift Sport and Volkswagen Up GTI.

The number accurately relates how it feels on the road too: there’s not the kick you get with more powerful EVs, but the Five is brisk off the line and has some reasonable mid-range punch too, only tailing off at motorway speeds, though it’s still pretty relaxed and has a little more go to spare at 70 – top speed is limited to 93mph.

Being front-wheel drive, it feels like Renault has sensibly calibrated the power to ramp up from a standstill rather than delivering it all at once, so on dry roads at least, it’ll only really spin the tyres out of junctions and tight hairpins, and there’s not much fighting or tugging at the steering wheel under hard acceleration. Regenerative braking could be a little stronger for our tastes though – it’s effective at slowing the car down, but true one-pedal driving isn’t really possible, and you do need to lean on the (nicely firm) brake pedal now and then.

Renault hasn’t yet quoted a range figure for the smaller 40kWh battery pack, but the larger 52kWh battery is good for 252 miles in theory – on the pace for a car in this class. A heat pump on every model is better than you’ll find in many rivals though and should help mitigate the usual range loss you’d get in very cold or very hot conditions.

Out of the laboratory and on actual roads, we found figures of more than four miles per kilowatt-hour fairly easy to achieve, which means that if you exhausted a full battery pack, you’d travel just shy of 210 miles, again not bad for the class, though some similarly-priced Chinese EVs with larger batteries will go further.

To put the range figure into another context though, we only used up about half of the car’s battery in five or six hours of mixed driving (town, motorways, and very twisty roads around Nice in the south of France). For every hill that drained range a little faster, we could coast down the other side and regenerate most of that energy.

Electric vehicles always get off to a pretty good start with refinement, and in the Renault 5’s case, motor noise is basically absent – the only sound you’ll hear at low speeds is the slight hum of the system designed to alert pedestrians of your presence. No augmented noise either, unlike the loud engine-style blare you’re offered by an Abarth 500e.

Despite the retro-inspired trapezoidal shape and some boxy-looking angles, there’s not a great deal of wind noise as speeds rise either, and tyre noise is also well insulated. The suspension and sense of integrity to the car help here too, as bumps don’t cause rattles or thumping noises through the cabin.

There are no EuroNCAP crash test results yet for the Renault 5 E-Tech. Renault has traditionally had a pretty good record here – it was the very first company ever to be awarded a five-star rating for one of its cars – and while it no longer seems to shoot for those top ratings in the way it once did, its cars are still considered safe. For some comparison, the closest current Renault in size to the new 5 is the Clio, and that has a five-star rating, while the 5 sits on a brand new platform where safety has surely been a priority.

Standard active safety kit is impressive for a car in this class too, with the kind of features usually found on models a size or two bigger: there’s lane keep assist with sensors both front and rear, automatic emergency braking with a reversing function, active driver assist, parking assist, driver attention alerts and more – Renault says there are 26 systems in total.

For those who prefer not to be beeped at by the dashboard on every journey, Renault also has one of the best implementations of any manufacturer for switching everything off. You set your preferences in the touchscreen, once, and then double-press a physical button on the dash each time you get in the car to instantly call up your preferred settings.

Renault has a bit of a mixed reputation for reliability, and you won’t find the brand in the top ten in the latest HonestJohn.co.uk Satisfaction Index – in fact, it came 28th from 29 positions. To its credit, none of its cars appeared in the worst 20, though none appeared in the top 20 either. For some peace of mind though, Renault has been making electric cars for longer than all but a handful of other manufacturers, so at least it’s not exploring untested technology with the 5 E-Tech.

The Renault 5 E-Tech is so new that we haven't got insurance group ratings for it yet, but the car’s huge suite of safety features should help it here. EVs can be more expensive than petrol superminis, and for some context, the old Renault Zoe went from groups 14-25 depending on spec.

The good news is that EVs currently don’t attract any VED or ‘road tax’. The bad news is that by the time customers take delivery of their Fives, vehicle tax will indeed have been introduced for EVs, as it starts in April 2025. The good news again is that you’ll still only pay a tenner a year until at least the 2029/2030 tax year, so tax won’t greatly add to your Renault 5’s running costs.

As a company choice, you’ll be looking at a 3% Benefit-in-Kind rate from the 2025/2026 tax year onwards.

Renault hasn’t revealed a detailed breakdown of each trim level’s specification just yet, but all models in the range - that’s Evolution, Techno, and Iconic trim - get a list of equipment that includes 18-inch alloy wheels, a pair of 10-inch driver and infotainment displays, a heat pump, and the range of safety aids mentioned further up. On Techno and Iconic trim you get standard Google Maps, while the top-spec Iconic has the fanciest seating trim (made from recycled materials including old PET bottles), and a light-up Renault 5 emblem on the passenger-side dash, which also changes colour depending on driving mode.

All trim levels will be available with the smaller 40kWh battery pack and 118bhp motor, while Techno and Iconic have the 52kWh and 148bhp option.