When did cheap become a dirty word? Why is the association with not wanting or being able to spend a lot shame rather than freedom? There used to be this concept called cheap-and-cheerful, where you weren’t punished at every turn for buying the inexpensive car, the store-brand food, or the white-labelled but funkily-painted white goods. While cheap Western EVs aren’t exactly a new concept, France is about to make them particularly adorable and endearing to own. Extremely official-looking photos of the new Renault Twingo have surfaced online, and while there are a few changes from the concept car, fans of the iconic city car likely won’t be disappointed.
What sort of changes, you ask? For one, the semicircular door handles are just gone, replaced with more standard pull-out handles. It’s a missed opportunity for a bit of charm, but if they’re parts bin handles, the commitment to keeping costs low isn’t going unnoticed. Secondly, the chunky wheel arch trims are gone, replaced with more slender units. Thirdly, there’s been some general production car-ization. The front bumper now sports a real intake for heat exchangers, the side mirrors are larger than on the concept, and you see parking sensors and retroreflectors appear to suit consumer taste and regulation. However, other than those touches, the new Twingo looks pretty much like the concept car we saw just two short years ago.
This means it has the same friendly ’90s-nostalgic face, the same triple hood vents, the same black band around the rear window. Even the lighting’s surprisingly close to what we saw on the show car. On face value, it seems that Renault hasn’t cocked this one up, but did you really expect anything different? The reborn Renault 5 is a masterclass in affordable style and the new Renault 4 manages to be chic and feel well-built without breaking the bank. Sure, the targeted sub-€20,000 price tag means the production Twingo needed some small sacrifices, but on first glance, it hits the visual spot, especially in sunflower yellow.
There’s good news on the inside too, where a big slab of body-color plastic dresses up the dashboard without splurging too much. Molding the Twingo wordmark into the plastic is a great way to break up the surface for essentially free, and joy of joys, there’s proper switchgear. Three knobs for your climate control, a giant hazard warning lamp switch that looks like a boiled sweet, real buttons on the steering wheel, and on the left edge of the dashboard. If Renault can spend the money on physical controls on such an inexpensive car, there’s no excuse for cheap and nasty capacitive touch controls in luxury products, full-stop.
It also doesn’t seem like Renault’s skimped on storage in the new Twingo. There’s a small tray in a half-console sprouting from the dashboard and a far larger one that sits beneath the infotainment screen and the body-color trim panel. Perfect for phones, parking slips, errant lemon sherbets, that sort of stuff. Speaking of infotainment, it’s not a huge surprise to see the family interface here, along with a digital instrument cluster. Welcome to the electric age. I am a bit curious as to what the red thing in the floor console is, but I suppose all will be revealed in due time.
There’s still a lot we don’t know about the new Twingo, like what sort of battery pack powers it and what the charging specs are like, but it seems like Renault’s done something impressive here. Not only has it done a reasonably convincing job of molding the pinch-me-cute looks of the original model around a modern form factor, it’s created a cheap electric car that’s actually cheerful. It won’t be long until Renault tells everyone more about its new electric baby, and when that happens, we’ll be here to relay all the details.
Top graphic image: Renault
So cuuuuuuuute!!! ^_^
I would love one in the green shade shown on the concept.
Have always loved these. Sadly, most of the ones eligible for importing are David Tracy approved rusty at the suspension mountings. Such cheerful cars, the Twingo was. .We Americans get screwed out of cool small hatchbacks. If it’s not a 3 ton gas sucking SUV with a 7 foot tall child killing hood line, were not allowed. SAD
While I agree with your sentiment at the “Canyonero-izarion” of new vehicle choices in the US. It is of course an over simplification.
2 row Crossovers and 2 row cute uses are all the rage right now in thr US market with many many options. I would guess these in fact make up the majority / middle of the bell curve of the (US) market
This would never meet North American regulatory approval. The first pedestrian it hits would total the front end.
The red thing on the console is obviously a cigar cutter. Being French, it probably has eleven ashtrays too.
If it was a Citroen, it would have a door pocket big enough for a bottle of wine. Even their vans have them.
If this were a car that you could actually buy in America, and it provided at least 180 real miles of mixed driving range, and it managed to cost no more than $23,500. base MSRP, I would simply buy one and be done with it.
I don’t need more car than that for 98% of the driving I do (being a city dweller) and I’m a fan of cheap and cheerful with a bit of charm and personality.
I’ll take it in that lovely shade of sunflower yellow too.
Way too posh. Needs unpainted bumpers, steelies and colored rotary ventilation controllers.
I’d like to see that version in addition to the one pictured above, particularly if it knocked the price down a bit further. I’ve got nothing against unpainted plastic or steelies at all. Steelies can be great, and they’re cheap to replace if need be. 🙂