I drove the Renault 5 E-Tech. This chic French EV has one silly feature you'll never find on a Tesla.

Business Insider

10 hours ago

The Renault 5 E-Tech is an electric reincarnation of a legendary, hugely popular French car.
It's the European car of the year and has proved popular with buyers on the continent.
I loved its quirky touches — it's the only car I've ever driven that comes with a baguette holder.
It's the accessory you didn't know you needed: a baguette holder. Yes, the Renault 5 E-Tech has just such a feature in the passenger footwell — a gimmick, of course, but a brilliantly quirky touch nonetheless that reminds you you're driving a French voiture.
I was going to include a picture of an empty baguette holder, but then I found this one from the car's launch showing Olympic gold medal-winning British diver Tom Daley with an actual baguette in the holder instead.
You could also use the holder for a bunch of flowers, should you be so inclined.
As you might have guessed from the E, the revived 5 is indeed electric, and there is no gas equivalent. It came about after now-departing CEO Luca de Meo rashly promised in a speech that Renault could make a new car in just 24 months — a very tight timeline in the auto world — and managed to do so only a few weeks past that target.
The 5 made its debut way back in 1972 and was an instant hit, becoming the best-selling car in France for 14 years, with about 5.5 million vehicles sold during that period.
While it was available in the US in the late 1970s, as Le Car, it didn't exactly bewitch American drivers.
Souped-up versions appealed to boy racers, and a turbo model won the Monte Carlo Rally in 1981.
The new 5 is Europe's car of the year 2025, beating the Alfa Romeo Junior, Citroën C3-ëC3, Cupra Terramar, Dacia Duster, Hyundai Inster and Kia EV3. It was back-to-back wins for Renault, after the Scenic — a small MPV — took the crown last year.
To find out why the 5 won, I took a train on a very warm Friday afternoon earlier this month to the northern edge of London to pick up an R5. It had a 52kWh battery, 150 HP engine, and came in vibrant "Pop! Green."
Buying this car would set you back a shade under £27,000 ($36,300), and has a decent WLTP range of 251 miles. This configuration represents the best value for money, according to What Car? The range starts at about £23,000.
I hit the M40 motorway bound for the picturesque town of Stratford-upon-Avon, the birthplace of William Shakespeare. I was able to do the speed limit of 70 miles an hour for most of the journey and got there in about two hours.
As I failed to connect my iPhone to the audio system before setting off, I tuned into the top 40 singles countdown on BBC Radio 1 — Sabrina Carpenter ended Alex Warren's 12-week run at the top of the chart, by the way.
The audio system sounds superb — and was apparently created by Jean-Michel Jarre, the legendary French electronic music artist.
For a small-ish EV, the 5 packs a punch, doing the speed limit effortlessly with plenty in reserve, had I wanted to risk a speeding fine. I can't say it's the quietest car I've ever driven, but I can't fault the ride and handling.
As well as the baguette holder, there are plenty of charming/weird touches, such as the "5" battery indicator on the hood that lights up. It's part of the car's "modern lighting signature with cheeky welcome and goodbye sequences," as Renault puts it.
The 5 is a lot of fun to drive — more than the quite boring MG I tested earlier this year. Not everyone may love its many quirks, such as the fabric on the dashboard and ceiling, and I found the four—yes, four—control stalks plus controls on the steering wheel to be quite bewildering.
Maybe I'm just easily confused, but I still failed to master the automatic transmission before having to give the car back. And I still have no idea what the "Multi-Sense" button does.
I had about 50% left and didn't want to risk running out of charge on the trip back to London, so I found a charging station in a fairly dismal retail park in Banbury.
This was actually the first time I've charged an EV, and it took me a minute to work out the right plug (yes, I am a slow learner). Fortunately I didn't have to create an account to use the charger and could just tap my credit card to release the power.
Getting the charge up to about 80% took about 15 minutes and cost just over £15 (about $20). Public chargers are not that cheap in the UK, and had the car been close to flat, it would've set me back about £50 (almost $70) to reach 100% — not too much less than a tank of gas.
If you don't have a garage or driveway, the economics of an EV become considerably more complicated, which is one reason hybrids are becoming increasingly popular.
In April, the 5 E-Tech was the UK's best-selling EV for retail buyers. In both April and May, it helped Renault take the top spot for private registrations of pure EVs. According to Renault, the car also leads its segment in Europe.
Car Dealer magazine also made the 5 its car of the year, calling it the "right car at the right time."
"The Renault 5 has both added some much-needed excitement to the lower end of the electric car market, and given Renault dealers some fire in their bellies. This small car is delivering a huge impact," says editor in chief James Baggott.
I'm inclined to agree. And you know what's coming now, don't you, American readers? It appears Renault has no plans to bring the 5 E-Tech to the US. Désolé.