Renault targets electric Twingo at urban buyers

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.

The Twingo Z.E. shares a platform and other components with the ForFour EQ, but it will have newer electric-vehicle technology because it is coming on the market later, Renault said.

The Twingo Z.E. will be built alongside the Smart ForFour at Renault's plant in Novo Mesto, Slovenia.

The two cars were developed jointly by Renault and Daimler under the project name Edison, and internal combustion engines of the rear-drive Twingo and Smart first went on sale in 2014. The Edison platform was designed to accept an electric drivetrain.

The Twingo Z.E. is "our response to a changing segment," said Renault's global marketing manager for minicars and small cars, Frederic Clermont.

Some automakers have stopped selling minicars because the cost of improving their internal combustion engines to meet stricter EU CO2 reduction goals is too high in a low-margin segment. Ford axed its Ka+ in Europe and Opel has dropped its Karl and Adam minicars.

But other automakers are adding small, zero-emissions electric cars targeted at buyers in cities and urban areas.

Volkswagen Group sells full-electric versions of its VW Up, Skoda Citigo and Seat Mii minicars.The Honda e will go on sale in Europe in the summer and the automaker expects to sell about 10,000 units annually in the region.  Renault's budget brand, Dacia, will preview its first full-electric vehicle at the Geneva show while Fiat will debut a battery-powered version of its 500 minicar.

Renault executives say there is still a significant set of customers who like minicars for their ease of parking and maneuverability rather than just for their low prices.

Clermont said that 40 percent of Twingo buyers choose the Intens highest-trim level, which costs nearly 16,000 euros in France. This shows that buyers in the segment were willing to pay more for premium features, he said.

The Twingo Z.E. will be an ideal vehicle for retirees who live in urban areas, Clermont said. The average age of Twingo buyers is 55, he said.

Clermont declined to give sales targets but said Renault was hoping to sell 15 percent to 30 percent of Twingos in the electric version, depending on local incentives for electric vehicles.

Last year Renault sold 86,486 Twingos in Europe, according to JATO Dynamics, about the same number as in 2018, when 86,774 were sold. The Twingo ranked fourth by unit sales in the minicar segment, behind the Fiat Panda, Fiat 500 and Toyota Aygo.

French industry analysts Inovev forecasts that Renault will sell 25,000 Twingo Z.E. models annually.