Renault 5 EV review: retro looks meet modern tech in electric supermini reboot
The new Renault 5 EV
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RENAULT 5 EV |
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Rating |
★★★★★ |
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Price |
€ xx,xxxx - €xx,xxxx as tested |
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Power |
148bhp with a top speed of 150km/h |
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Range |
Optimistically 410km |
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The Spec |
Original R5 owners will not believe what’s on offer here |
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Verdict |
it might not go terribly far, but it does so brilliantly |
JUST like the movies, it would seem, the motor industry appears incapable of allowing past great moments to simply revel in their greatness.
Seeing as how Hollywood — or wherever is the epicentre of the movie world these days — has seemingly re-made every single great movie from the past, apart maybe from Gone With The Wind, to try and turn it into profitable dollars for a second time, car makers sometimes feel equally in thrall to their own greatest hits.
Consistently, they go back to the font of greatness which spawned wonderful originals to either attempt to revive currently dire circumstances, or simply to trick the public into believing they have not lost the magic which made those cars great in the first place.
We are not talking here about such as, say, the Toyota Corolla, which has rolled from generation to generation without a pause in profitability or popularity. No, we are talking about cars which were once generational icons and which have been revived spectacularly. The most obvious example has been BMW’s Mini; the Germans took over Austin Rover (or whatever it was called when it was sold off for a few quid and a McDonald's voucher), with the sole intention of reviving the Mini brand.
That must have been the case because they, in turn, sold everything else off — MG, Rover, Land Rover, etc, apart from the Mini brand. Their success in revitalising it has been inspirational.
So too the Fiat 500, the modern version of which possibly single-handedly saved the Italian company’s bacon and spawned a whole family of cars with everything in there from a speedy Abarth version to the dull-as-ditchwater MPV.
Lately, though, we have seen a raft of former greats being dug up from the grave, dusted down, and given a second life. Most recently, Renault has been close to the top of this pile, with old hit makers being given a chance to top the charts again.
The Renault 4 — the new one — will be with us soon, but while we are waiting for that, we can ogle at the new Renault 5. Already a European Car of the Year (COTY) winner last year, the original R5, of course, vanished into the mist when it was replaced by the Clio in 1990.
Now, while the Clio itself was a hugely successful car (one of only two cars to have won the European COTY prize twice), there was always a place for the car it took over from in the hearts of motoring savants everywhere. That being so, Renault decided to build a new one, and that’s what we’re testing this week.
Like so many reenvisioned motors these days, the R5 has been reawakened solely as an EV, so it’s not quite the car it once was, but that’s OK too, because we have moved along somewhat in the intervening years. The end result, however, is spectacular.
Those of you who remember the old 5 will see the new one and, more than likely, think: ‘Wow, they sure got this one right.’ While the designers have woven in plenty of modernity in the new car, there is just enough retro character imbued in it for people of a certain age to get misty-eyed.
And I would be one of them. Not long after coming to Cork to work for this august organ, I owned one — GIO 84, was the registration number, and that identified it as originally having been registered in Kildare under Ireland’s pre-1987 registration system.
Dark blue, it was and very pretty, although by today’s standards of technology, it was most certainly prehistoric. There was no central locking, no power steering, no radio, no auto gearbox, no ABS — none of that malarkey. But it was a tiger and made it through many experiences which, undoubtedly, the designers had never intended it for.
Roomy, practical, and possibly quicker than many other contemporary superminis, the R5 amounted to more than the sum of its parts and, interestingly, that is a conclusion I also arrived at when assessing the new one recently.
In its ‘pop yellow’ overcoat, it certainly caught the eye, and the bi-colour roof further stood it out from the crowd. That the body is roughly the same shape as the original and yet still looks of this moment is a tribute to the detailed work of the designers who truly have forged something new from old building blocks.
Certainly, it is not perfect as there are a couple of things that should annoy most sensible people, but it sure comes close.
The new R5 is new from the ground up and is the first car based on the AmpR Small platform, which will underpin a bunch of new Renault models, including the R4. That fact means the car has been built to do loads of things, including supporting vehicle-to-grid technology, so you can power your home from it. Cool, or what?
New too is the whole interior, and it is largely made from recycled materials, including the vivid yellow and grey upholstery. So French is it that you can even specify a baguette holder, but quirks like that aside, it really is very modern and stacked with tech, to the point you’re left wondering how the original managed to function at all.
The infotainment system is excellent — much is shared with the new Megane and Scenic — but one downside is the stalk arrangement on the steering column for the lights, indicators, wipers, and sound system control, which is fussy and takes a while to get used to.
This is not a big car, and that’s reflected in the amount of room afforded to the rear seat passengers, and the boot is tidy rather than generous.
Performance-wise, there is an element of Jekyll and Hyde going on. The test car’s battery — 52 kWh — is the bigger of the two offered and produces some 148bhp, as well as a top speed of 150km/h and a 0-100km/h time of eight seconds dead. By way of reference, that’s only a smidgen behind the capability of the R5 GT Turbo of the 1990s, which was regarded as very hot back in the day.
It is thus quite quick, but has the handling nous to cope, and at no point did you get the feeling that the chassis was overwhelmed. That was in stark contrast with the original, it has to be said. The ride, too, is accomplished and very forgiving in Irish conditions.
If, however, you were expecting deal-breaking range performance from this, most modern of hatchbacks, forget it. The claimed range is 410km, but I found that wildly optimistic. I know I have a heavy right foot at the best of times, but the 320km maximum I extracted from the car suggested to me that — in reality — this is a town car that’ll only get a little way beyond your urban boundaries.
Moderate journeys are possible, but getting to Aunty Maisie’s funeral in Ballybofey will be challenging.
Despite the downsides, this is still a fantastic piece of kit, and while some might blanche at such things as the colour schemes, their antipathy should be ignored. I found pretty much everything about the new R5 to be delightful, and that’s why it gets a five-star rating.
