2026 Renault Twingo EV previewed by cutesie retro concept

"This is a silver bullet for sustainable urban mobility", said Renault Group CEO Luca de Meo of the Twingo Legend concept unveiled at yesterday's Renault Capital Market Day, Ampere conference.

The diminutive electric city car – sat next to three other electric Renaults; the on-sale Megane E-Tech, soon-to-launch Scenic E-Tech and all-new 4 and 5 affordable EVs – is likely to be in production by 2026.

The Twingo is targeted at inner-city buyers and, with Renault's focus on decentralised ownership, de Meo gave a target price of 100 Euros (A$166) per month to lease.

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Renault's all-new fourth-gen Twingo will benefit from the brand putting funds into CMF-B EV platform development for the 4 and 5 small EVs set to launch over the next two years.

It's likely to sit on a modified version of the platform – we imagine using more affordable torsion beam rear suspension and other cost-cutting tactics – and de Meo said it would come to market in a "record" two years, matching the speed of Chinese carmakers.

The Twingo probably won't come to Australia but we can learn a thing or two from de Meo's lecture – "We have to go back to smaller cars", he said. And with shrinking size comes improved efficiency, with a promised energy consumption of 10kWh/100km for the Twingo – an MG 4 uses 13.7kWh/100km.

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This means the Twingo only needs small batteries for less waste, more interior volume and lower prices. A win-win all around.

De Meo acknowledged that Renault looked at rebadging the Chinese-built Dacia Spring but decided to honour the French brand's heritage by reinvigorating the amazingly space-efficient one-box Twingo design.

The Legend concept (also celebrating 30 years of Twingo) is a modern twist on the 'Froggy' Twingo designed by Patrick Le Quément who managed to slip the original into production by telling then head of Renault the car had to be cute enough that owners would want to take it inside by the fire at night.

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The concept references the original's hidden door handles, three-strake bonnet vent cleverly repurposed to show battery charge level, alloy wheel design, and quirky lighting details – it's hard not to fall in love with Twingo.

Current Renault CEO Luca de Meo has experience in launching reto city cars, being the boss of Fiat when la Nuova 500 launched in 2007.