Is the Renault 5 about to be made available with one pedal driving and steering wheel paddles to control the regen?

Electrifying understands that dealers have been in touch with customers to let them know that the cars are already available to order and that the first examples are on their way to the UK from Renault’s Electri-City plant near Lille where the Renault 5 and Nissan Micra are built as almost identical cars. 

We drove one of the first Micras into the country recently as part of a twin test (check out the video below) putting the almost identical Nissan and Renault models up against each other, and found that the Micra already has regen paddles and one pedal driving, leaving us wondering why the 5 was not yet offered with the features. And these things are important when there's little to choose between the two... 

We got in touch with Renault UK, which said it wasn’t able to confirm that the cars were being fitted with the upgrade, but we have heard that the company is going to announce the changes in the next couple of weeks. It's not known whether the changes will be available on all cars in the UK or just on higher spec levels. 

Currently you have to put your Renault 5 into B mode to get anything approximating one pedal driving, and you can’t adjust the level of regen in stages like the paddles would allow you to. Left-hand-drive cars have already been upgraded with the new feature, leaving UK cars lagging behind. 

The move was apparently part of the development process, with the decision made to get the car to market without one pedal driving and regen paddles and then upgrade the car later. The Renault 5 E-Tech has been on sale since 2024. 

Some UK drivers with Renault 5s already on the road have reported receiving an over the air update that allows for one pedal driving, but this obviously doesn’t allow for the staged regen with the paddles, unless an aftermarket tweak is available.