Renault 5 review

As we said in the Overview, the 5 is very temptingly priced, starting at £22,995. That's for the Evolution trim and small 40kWh battery.

After that it's simple: you add £2k for the bigger battery with its more powerful motor, and £2k for each trim step. So the well-equipped Techno with 52kWh is £22,995 plus £2,000 (powertrain) plus £2,000 (one trim level) equals £27k. Which seems very reasonable - and is the version we’d steer you too. It’s all you need and more.

The next trim step, to Iconic, adds the yellow trim, different wheels – still 18-inch alloys through – and fuller driver assistance including a 360-degree camera and self parking. It also adds heated seats with electric lumbar support.

That's a little annoying: heated seats are a good way to make an EV feel warm in winter without using the battery-draining space heater. Mind you all R5s in the UK have a heat pump. On a warm day we achieved 4.0mi/kWh, suggesting 200-mile real world range is possible when the conditions are right.

Options are few. Lack of configuration makes the supply chain and factory run more smoothly, cutting cost. But instead there's a huge range of body stickers and cabin clutter-holder doodads you can buy afterwards.

Green and yellow sit alongside black, white and dark blue on the colour chart. Most can be had with contrasting roof colour. Green, oddly, is the only standard colour, the others are £650-£800 more, with the contrast roof on top of that. A towbar can be had for £686. There are also some curious graphic packs available. Be wary.

Early demand is reportedly strong, but go on the Renault website and you can reserve a car for £99. Our favoured model, the bigger battery and motor Techno will cost you £216 a month if you swerve the options. Add different paint and an option or two and you’re looking at more like £250. We’ll say it again: hell of a car for the money.

Renault has an associated company, Mobilize, that sells energy services. For charging on the go, a Mobilize card consolidates bills and gets access to some rapid networks provided you pay a monthly subscription; standard EV stuff, that. More interesting, Mobilize can supply a bidirectional charge box and arrange a tariff so you can buy cheap night juice and sell it back to the grid at a profit.