Renault 5 - long-term review

We’re three months into life with our long-term Renault 5, and we’ve already managed to cross the 3,000-mile mark. Not bad for a little electric city car.

And no, we haven’t been moonlighting as an inner-city Uber. In fact, big chunks of those miles have been put on with proper road trips that I’d usually dread in an EV. First was that fuss-free run home from the factory in Douai, then came a trip from London to Liverpool and back in a single day, before a similar motorway run up to North Yorkshire but with a sensible single overnight stay before the journey back. So, how has the R5 been getting on?

Well, the first thing to note is just how easy it is to set off on a drive in the 5 (I’m a poet, etc). Of course, this shouldn’t really be a difficult thing to get right, but so many manufacturers have fluffed it with new active safety requirements and tech integration. Jump in the R5, switch the car on using the slightly hidden dash-mounted button and my phone immediately connects to wireless Apple CarPlay every time. And because it’s running the Google built-in system and I’m signed in to my account, the nav on the 10.1in touchscreen already has my recent destination searches from Google Maps on my phone in and ready to go.

Once on the move, neither the speed limit warning nor the emergency lane assist is that intrusive, but they can both be turned off by double-tapping a proper physical button that’s mounted within easy reach to the right of the steering wheel. This activates your custom safety settings that you’ll set up as soon as you take delivery of the car.

Even our mid-range Techno trim car gets adaptive cruise control, and on the motorway the R5 feels just as grown up as it did in town. This is a properly refined little car that filters out most road and wind noise. Comfortable recycled denim seats, too.

Max charging speed is quoted as 100kW, so on these longer trips I’ve mostly been visiting 150kW+ chargers and have quite reliably seen over 90kW going into the 5 until it reaches 80 per cent SoC. On every single journey so far, it has connected quickly and charged without fault, with the Google nav quickly working out where is best to stop on a longer run, and even updating with how many plugs are free at each charging station. Should I be touching wood while writing that everything is rosy with the UK’s charging network?

So, the R5 isn’t just a city car. Even on these longer runs (with the air conditioning working overtime in the recent heatwave) it’s proving to be properly efficient. It’ll sit at 70mph quite comfortably and still manage an average of 4.1 miles per kWh, which means just over 200 miles between stops on a road trip. And because the battery is fairly small at 52kWh it’s topped up again by the time I’ve used the facilities and grabbed a coffee. In fact, the Ionity station at Leeds Skelton Lake was so far from the service station building I’m sure I had a full battery before I’d even walked into the McDonald’s. And yes, other unhealthy service station stops are available. Worth noting here that Ionity loses points in the charge provider wars for still not offering contactless payment at lots of its plugs. Urgh.

In reality though I’ve not really had to think about the R5 and its road trip charging. The car plans the route and I generally follow its advice. Or, if I need to stop sooner I’ll use the inbuilt nav to search for other options. This was particularly useful on the drive home from Liverpool, where I required a quick 20-minute power nap and was able to offer the car the same luxury.

Oh, and the jaunt up to North Yorkshire was most notable not for the charging, but for the fact that I finally got to spot more R5s out in the wild. Two were yellow with a black roof and the third was green, again with a contrast black roof. I still prefer the single colour, but it’s great to see that customers aren’t shying away from the brighter options. It’s a brilliantly fun looking car and deserves a yellow or green. Given the price and the efficiency I’m surprised the R5 hasn’t taken over London just yet, but I’m sure it won’t be long until they’re everywhere…