PARIS — Renault will launch a battery-powered version of its Twingo minicar that has a longer range and lower price than its sibling model from Daimler, the Smart ForFour EQ.
The Twingo Z.E. will be available in Europe at the end of this year. It will debut at the Geneva auto show on March 3.
The Twingo Z.E. has a 22 kilowatt-hour hour battery from Korean manufacturer LG Chem that sits below the front seats. Its 60-kilowatt electric motor has an output equivalent to 82 hp and 160 newton meters of torque.
Renault says car can accelerate from 0 to 50 kph (32 mph) in under four seconds. It has a top speed of 135 kph (84 mph).
The Twingo Z.E.'s range is 250 km (155 miles) measured under the EU's WLTP urban test cycle, and 180 km on the WLTP mixed cycle, pending final certification. Smart's ForFour EQ has a range of 116 km to 130 km on the WLTP cycle.
The Twingo Z.E's battery pack can be charged to full capacity in one hour and three minutes using a 22-kilowatt charging station.
Using a standard a 2.4-kilowatt home socket, the charging time is 13.3 hours. This falls to eight hours with a 3.7-kilowatt home wallbox and four hours with a 7.4-kilowatt home wallbox.
Its powertrain features water cooling, a first for a Renault electric vehicle.
Renault did not give a price for the Twingo Z.E., but executives said it would be less than the ForFour EQ, which starts at just under 22,000 euros in France, including a 6,000-euro government zero emissions incentive. The base model gasoline engine Twingo starts at just under 12,000 euros in France.