Renault 5 E-Tech Long Term Review

Report 1

April 2025

Mileage: 366

Real-world range: 220 miles

Efficiency: 4.1m/kWh

My long-term Renault 5 arrived on my birthday, which was a pretty strong start to any new rotation around the sun and definitely up there with the best presents I’ve ever received. The only slight downside is that it’s not actually mine to keep, it's my new 12-month long-termer. So, I’m already aware that this is going to be a slightly doomed love story.

My first challenge came before it even arrived - what spec to go for. Colours are a real strong point with the Renault 5; it’s like the Cindy Crawford of cars, nothing really makes it look bad. Should it be classic Midnight Blue with classy gold accents, or Arctic White with just that flash of red trim around the roofline?

And then there are the trims: comfort, techno or Iconic 5. You could lose days on the configurator going back and forth. In the end I went for what I think is the sweet spot in the range: the Renault 5 E-Tech in mid-range techno trim with the larger 52kWh battery, which brings a claimed range of up to 250 miles.

Colour-wise I went standard - Pop Green, with its lovely sparkle. I love the fact that Renault has made something this eye-catching the base option.

In terms of kit, the techno is well equipped with adaptive cruise control, a reversing camera and the very satisfying charging indicator lights on the bonnet, which is probably my favourite feature, so far. Sadly, it doesn’t get heated seats or a heated steering wheel, you have to go for the top spec to get those - and you can’t add them as an option -  which feels like a bit of a miss from Renault given how much EV drivers rely on them in winter.

Now as with any new car, the first job was to give it a name. You all do that too, don’t you? Please say you do. After some deliberation - ‘Kermit’ felt too obvious, ‘Frog’ possibly a bit offensive to my French friends - I settled on Yoda, partly because I’m a Star Wars fan and partly because the fact it’s small and green felt like enough of a justification.

So this is the plan for the next year. Yoda is going to be my everyday car, helping me fulfill my second job as an unpaid Uber driver for teenagers. Taking me to everything from supermarket runs to longer trips, with Ziggy the cocker spaniel thoroughly ‘woof testing’ it, and the teen basically treating it as an extension of his bedroom.

I have a feeling it's going to be a fun year, Yoda already had me at bonjour. I mean, who wouldn’t fall for something that looks this good? Now it’s time to find out whether there’s more to the Renault 5 than just a very pretty face.

Report 2

July 2025

Mileage: 2476

Real-world range: 220 miles

Efficiency: 4.1m/kWh

I knew my Renault 5 (aka Yoda) would attract attention, but I wasn’t quite prepared for just how many conversations it has started over the past two months. As one of the first cars in the country, I got an early indication this was going to become a bit of a cult car when a complete stranger knocked on my front door to ask about it.

Since then, I’ve had people stop me in car parks, shout questions across traffic lights and wander over while I’m plugging it in. In Pop Green especially, the Renault 5 is basically impossible to ignore. It’s charming, but if you enjoy keeping a low profile this probably isn’t the car - or the colour - for you.

I haven’t begrudged spending time talking to people about the R5 because I’ve already fallen for it quite hard. I still smile every time I walk up to it and those squared-off daytime running lights in the lower bumper flash hello in the morning. More importantly, I’ve quickly discovered it’s genuinely lovely to drive.

It’s got exactly the sort of character I like in a small car, quick enough to feel playful without constantly encouraging you to behave like you’re auditioning for Fast & Furious. Renault has really nailed the balance with it, the steering has a reassuring weight and its compact size and tight turning circle make it ridiculously easy to park, which is proving very useful given my second career as chauffeur to a teenager.

However, as with any new relationship, the honeymoon period is beginning to wear off slightly. Yoda doesn’t snore or leave wet towels on the floor, but the gear selector is really starting to test my patience.

To be fair it’s not unique to the Renault 5, it’s a Renault thing in general. Renault loves a stalk behind the steering wheel and I’m still getting used to the one that operates as the gear selector. Getting it cleanly into drive or reverse requires more precision and patience than I can muster. You have to hold it in place for a second, which feels like an eternity when you’re trying to do a quick three-point turn.

I have also discovered that if you’re not paying attention, it’s possible to think you’ve selected reverse when you’re actually in drive. Thankfully the only casualty so far has been my dignity and a mildly startled Renault 5 admirer.

Hopefully this will become less of an issue as I get used to its idiosyncrasies. On the plus side, I’m very happy with the efficiency, which is currently returning close to its claimed range and proving particularly impressive around town.

Despite the slightly frustrating gear selector, I’m still completely charmed by it. Every journey feels like a bit of an occasion and two months in I’m still looking back at it every time I park up - which is a very good sign.

Report 3

October 2025

Mileage: 3,978

Real-world range: 220 miles

Efficiency: 4.1m/kWh

​I’ll admit it - before my time with the Renault 5 I wasn’t entirely convinced a small retro hatchback with a 52kWh battery was going to make a relaxing road-trip companion. Around town, absolutely. School runs, supermarket trips and ferrying teenagers around Oxfordshire? Perfect. But several hundred motorway miles to Cornwall in the middle of summer holiday traffic? I suspected Yoda and I might be heading for our first major relationship wobble.

As it turned out, this summer became Yoda’s biggest test yet because alongside family trips, I was also spending a lot of time travelling around the country filming Escape to the Country for the BBC. Which meant plenty of early starts, long days, rural routes and a LOT of charging stops.

What really struck me over those months was just how much rural charging infrastructure has improved. A few years ago, driving an EV deep into the countryside still required a degree of optimism and backup planning. Now I found myself topping up at garden centres, farm shops and the occasional McDonald’s thanks to InstaVolt - which may not be the cheapest charging network, but in my experience it’s one of the most reliable.

I was also surprised by how many hotels in wonderfully obscure parts of the country can now accommodate EVs. More and more places seem to understand that offering charging is becoming just as important as offering WiFi.

In fact, one of the unexpected advantages of the Renault 5’s relatively modest 52kWh battery is that charging stops rarely feel painfully long. Rather than sitting around waiting for a massive battery to crawl from 15 to 100 per cent, I found myself topping up quickly, grabbing a coffee and carrying on. It actually suits the sort of driving I do far better than I expected and I love seeing the illuminated number ‘5’ charging monitor flashing away as I come back to the car. I thought this would be a gimmick, but it’s actually a useful reminder of how much charge you have left. 

The maximum DC charge rate is 100kW, but you’ll only get that up to around a 25% state of charge, after which it drops off pretty quickly. So my preferred style of topping up from around 30-80% meant I didn’t see much in terms of peak charging speeds - 40kW to 80kW was more realistic. But even with those rates I didn’t feel like I was hanging around waiting for the car to charge. 

In warmer weather, I was regularly seeing around 200 miles from a full charge on motorway-heavy journeys, or some 220 miles in more varied stuff, which felt more than enough. And because the battery isn’t enormous, it's been surprisingly easy to keep it in that sweet spot where charging is fastest, and that made longer journeys feel far less stressful than I’d expected.

Around town, I’ve found I’m easily getting closer to 260 miles of range in this warmer weather - beyond the official WLTP figure of 250 miles - but, of course, I’m well aware this is a summer romance and those figures may start to plummet once the Autumn weather really hits. 

Report 4

December 2025

Mileage: 4,678

Real-world range: 200 miles

Efficiency: 3.8m/kWh

​Every school year, my side hustle as an unpaid Uber driver for teenagers kicks in and this revealed the Renault 5’s biggest practical compromise - the back seats. Remember when I said this car would become an extension of my teenager’s bedroom? I can now confirm that statement includes football boots, abandoned hoodies, several crushed water bottles and at least one unidentified sports item I was ultimately too frightened to investigate properly.

To be fair to Yoda, it has coped remarkably well with the chaos of everyday life. But while the front seats feel surprisingly spacious, the rear is definitely more “compact hatchback” than spacious family car. It’s absolutely fine for shorter journeys, but once you add tall teenagers, sports kit and Ziggy the cocker spaniel into the equation, things start getting tighter fairly quickly. The teens don’t really feel comfortable for longer journeys in the back, and while this is something to think about if you’ll need to regularly carry taller passengers back there it does mean that I’m no longer first choice for the late night lifts back from parties in the middle of nowhere - so there is that.

Ziggy alone takes up a heroic amount of room in the back, especially once his travel harness, blanket and assorted dog paraphernalia are added into the mix. Then there’s the boot, which is compact and not great for anything ambitious involving DIY supplies and garden centre purchases with its compact space and deep load lip to navigate.

I’ve become surprisingly skilled at what I now call “Renault 5 Tetris” - a complex process involving moving charging cables, sports bags and shopping around. But once the seats are folded down it does make my trips to the builders yard less stressful - I'm building a house - and Yoda has become a great little workhorse for lugging stuff up to the site as long as I don’t need to carry back seat passengers. 

Range wise, I’ve not seen the drop that I was expecting - and on an Autumn drive down to Cornwall at the end of October I was still averaging 3.9 miles per kWh on the motorway.

Underneath all the retro styling and social-media friendliness, the Renault 5 has turned out to be far tougher and more usable than it first appears. Which is lucky really, because my life was never going to treat it delicately. Somehow, despite the dust, chaos and constant teenage invasions, it still manages to feel special every single day and copes with whatever I throw at it - which is usually quite a lot.

Report 5

March 2026

Mileage: 5,740

Real-world range: 170 miles

Efficiency: 3.3m/kWh

​Every EV feels fun in July when the sun is shining. January is where the real relationship test begins. Back in spring I said Renault really should have made heated seats standard on the Techno trim. Several months later, after a winter of icy early starts and freezing school runs, I regret to inform you that I still feel exactly the same way.

Because, while Yoda has handled winter remarkably well overall, there have definitely been moments over the past few months where I would have traded almost anything for a heated steering wheel and a toasty warm seat. There’s something particularly cruel about sitting in such a cheerful-looking car while your body temperature slowly disappears.

Winter has inevitably taken a bite out of the Renault 5’s efficiency too. During the warmer months I was comfortably seeing around 200 miles on motorway runs and even nudging beyond the official range around town. Once the temperatures dropped, those numbers became noticeably less ambitious. On longer motorway journeys I was generally seeing closer to 170 miles, particularly when it was properly cold and miserable outside.

On the subject of motorways, small cars can sometimes feel slightly overwhelmed by long motorway journeys, but the Renault 5 generally feels reassuringly solid and grown up at speed. The adaptive cruise control takes some of the stress out of longer runs and I’ve found those lovely recycled denim seats genuinely comfortable after several hours behind the wheel.

However, there is one thing Renault and I still disagree on - wind noise. I maintain that once you get much beyond 50mph, there’s a noticeable amount of wind noise around the top of the doors. It’s not disastrous and yes, you can mostly drown it out with music or a podcast, but on longer journeys it’s definitely there. 

The good news is that Renault has made EV ownership refreshingly straightforward. Some electric cars still seem to assume you’re some kind of tech expert, but the Renault 5 keeps things simple. I quickly settled into the habit of setting the charging for my off-peak electricity tariff overnight via the screen in the car, and as the colder months have crept in I’ve added in scheduling the cabin to pre-heat before I leave in the morning.

Honestly, during winter that became one of my favourite things about living with it. While everyone else was scraping icy windscreens in the dark, I’d walk out to a warm car with the battery topped up and ready to go. It’s one of those EV ownership perks that sounds slightly smug until you experience it for yourself.

The Google-based infotainment system deserves some credit here too because it’s intuitive enough that I never found myself fighting with menus or trying to remember where basic functions were hidden. Which, given how overcomplicated some modern systems have become, feels surprisingly refreshing.

There was also a genuinely exciting moment just before Christmas when the infamous Renault baguette basket finally arrived after being out of stock for what felt like most of the year. Does it significantly reduce passenger knee room? Yes. Do I care? Absolutely not. Frankly, passengers just need to suffer in silence because the sheer joy it brings me far outweighs their comfort.

Sadly, I don’t live round the corner from a charming French bakery, so my baguette transportation opportunities remain limited. But over the past few weeks it has proved surprisingly useful for flowers, bottles of wine and Ziggy’s ever-growing collection of dog toys. Completely unnecessary? Probably. But it perfectly sums up why I’ve become so fond of the Renault 5. It makes owning a car fun! 

Of course, winter has also meant muddy football kit, wet dogs and the Renault 5 spending most of its life looking considerably less Instagram-friendly than it did over summer. But the strange thing is, even at its least glamorous it still somehow manages to feel cheerful and yes, still makes me smile when it winks good morning at me.

And I think that’s probably the Renault 5’s greatest achievement. Most cars lose their novelty after a few months, particularly once winter arrives and real life takes over. But somehow Yoda has continued to make dark mornings, freezing temperatures and endless school runs feel just a little bit less grim. Which is probably the highest compliment I can give any car.

Report 6 - Goodbye!

May 2026

Mileage: 8,210

Real-world range: 220 miles

Efficiency: 4.1m/kWh

​So after a year together, it’s finally time to hand Yoda back. And honestly? I’m a bit heartbroken about it.

I’ve done so much trouble-free driving with this, apart from a puncture which was fixed easily at my local garage - it's now due a service, which Renault is doing when it takes it back. Renault does offer plans for the R5, starting at £9.99 per month for three years of servicing and running up to £16.99 per month for four years, one MOT test and a year of extended warranty.  If you pay for a one off its around £200 - about the same as a petrol Clio - I was expecting less given well the lack of moving parts and oily bits in this. But as we know servicing it where main dealers make a lot of their money

I’ve had plenty of long-term test cars over the years, but this is the first one in a very long time that I’ve genuinely wanted to keep. Somewhere between the school runs, motorway trips, building-site visits, muddy dogs and endless teenage taxi duties, the Renault 5 stopped feeling like a press car and started feeling like part of the family.

Whoever ends up with Yoda next is getting a very special little car. My advice? Go for the top-spec version because I still haven’t forgiven Renault for not putting heated seats in the techno. Watch out for the occasionally infuriating gear selector. And if you regularly carry tall teenagers in the back, tell them to stop moaning and enjoy the ride.

As for me, I’m going to miss the way it winked hello every morning, the conversations it started with strangers everywhere it went and the fact it somehow managed to make even the dullest journeys feel cheerful.

Au revoir mon amour. It’s been great.