Yesterday we got to see the first images of an electric Renault Twingo due in 2026. The price seems way too low for an electric car, and that’s because it’s not a car at all.
Good friend and Autovisie editor Stijn Kuster has his doubts about the electric version of the Renault Twingo. Why? Because everything seems to indicate that we are dealing with an L7e. In other words, we are dealing with a microcar.
The new Renault Twingo is not an electric car
Yesterday we wrote about the electric Renault Twingo that the manufacturer itself says we can get in Europe for less than 20,000 euros. Those who want to lease the vehicle will pay even less than 100 euros per month to drive the EV.
Not only does that seem too good to be true, but it is. Via Autovisie, Stijn Kuster informs us that Renault admitted during the IAA trade show that the lack of safety systems has allowed it to produce certain models cheaply.
Normally those systems are an expensive joke, but with L7e models on the market, an exception can be found. Given the price and cost savings Renault applies in countries like India, the math can be done fairly quickly.
The new Renault Twingo is not an electric car, but a so-called microcar. Or well, yes: an L7e, that is.
Renault Twingo: low consumption, low price
Renault says that the announced Twingo, with 10kWh per 100 kilometers, has a particularly low consumption. Even so low that we can easily compare it to microcars like the Silence S04 and the Microlino.
That low consumption also refers to a light car. To be registered as an L7e vehicle, such a model must weigh a maximum of 450 kilograms (excluding the battery). Something that, according to Kuster, should be achievable.
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Well, and then there’s that low price. For an electric car, a lease amount of 100 euros per month is too good to be true, but for an L7e, it certainly is not. The reason: these vehicles are exempt from road tax.
Difference between Microcar and an L7e
Although you may initially think that an L7e vehicle is another name for the microcar (at least I do), there are differences between the two categories of small, compact vehicles.
The main difference is that microcar is an informal term used for small cars in general, which includes 45-kilometer bakkies. An L7e is a legal classification under European vehicle regulations.
In other words, by L7e vehicles we mean different types of motorized vehicles and microcars can fall under that.
But an L7e vehicle is not necessarily a microcar. It can also be a quad or a trike, for example.
Renault Twingo takes on these toppers
The market around microcars and L7e vehicles is becoming increasingly popular due to its growing range of offerings. Should the Renault Twingo actually appear as such a model (and it looks like it will) it does face quite a bit of competition.
Exactly what kind of competition that is, the editors of Autovisie recently found out in a test that managed to cause particular amusement in our editor’s parking lot.
Eight darn tasty micro bakkies stood side by side in the parking lot and were all driven away by Autovisie’s, well, tall male editorial staff.
The result of that test can be found in the article below: