Item: Used Renault Twizy 2012-present
Rating: 2
Author: What Car? Team

As such, the Twizy is without rivals. Small electric cars include the wonderful Hyundai Ioniq, which is quick off the line, economical, refined, well equipped and spacious inside. Consider also the Renault Zoe, the Twizy’s larger, more comfortable and more conventional sibling, or the Volkswagen e-Up, which is great to drive and well equipped and has all the goodness of its petrol-powered brothers.

What is it like?

Ownership cost

Advice for buyers

Our recommendations

Alternatives

City-Car

Hatchbacks, SUVs, fast cars, electric cars: Renault makes them all, in a variety of shapes and sizes, so it has a line-up designed to tempt pretty much everyone.

From the roadside, the standout feature of them all is the design, with its cars now having a distinctive look that has won the firm a legion of fans for its flair and charm.

To drive and to own, the line-up is typically decent rather than outstanding. Best of the cars when they are rated against rivals are the Kadjar SUV, the fast RS models and the electric Zoe.

With new and used pricing also keen – and Target Price discounts through our New Car Buying marketplace usually more generous than most – there is the opportunity to negotiate an appealing price.

RENAULT

TWIZY

<h4 dir="ltr">The Renault Twizy is great fun, but the ride is bumpy and its safety is very poor</h4>

Used Renault Twizy 2012-present

It should cost very little to run your Twizy, except for one thing: the monthly fee you’ll have to pay for leasing the battery. This works out at an average of about £45 a month at present. Insurance costs are lower than average, and road tax costs will be zero. Surprisingly, perhaps, it will need servicing, but costs of this are fairly cheap, and plans are available for spreading the cost. &nbsp;

The Renault Twizy is great fun, but the ride is bumpy and its safety is very poor


Twizy prices start at around £4500 for one of the early 2012 models. Twizys rarely attract great mileages, so most will have modest amounts on the clock. Spend between £5000 and £6000 for a 2013/2014 car, a little more for a 2015/2016 one.

Perhaps unusually, there are two trim options with the Twizy. Expression is the basic trim, while Dynamique adds alloys and metallic paint. You’ll have to pay extra for doors and windows and Bluetooth, though.

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Our favourite Renault Twizy: Expression

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<h2>What we're looking for:</h2><ul><li>Sufficient range between charges to fit in with most people’s lifestyles – and in the real world, not on some far-fetched official test </li> <li>Quick charging times and compatibility with the most ubiquitous types of public charging points </li> <li>Priced to be within the grasp of more than just the privileged few </li> <li>As with any car, ride comfort, practicality and ownership costs can’t be ignored</li></ul>

We define an electric car as one that runs purely on battery power and has no tailpipe to puff out nasty chemicals. These cars qualify for the maximum plug-in car grant (PICG) of £3500.

The Renault Zoe is one of the most affordable options and has a surprisingly long range of between 120 and 180 miles (depending on the weather and the road type). However, the Nissan Leaf and Volkswagen e-Golf are more practical and more accomplished to drive, even if the latter doesn't have a particularly long range between charges.

At the other end of the scale, Tesla’s ground-up EV philosophy – and the American brand’s own network of super-fast chargers – makes the Model S a tempting choice. It has seating for up to seven, an classy interior and a long enough real-world range to make inter-city travel a real possibility.

Electric

Reported problems with the Twizy are few, and as long as you inspect the bodywork and protruding pod-like wheels for signs of any damage you should be okay buying a used one. So far, battery life seems good, and you’ll be leasing that anyway. The good news is that the Twizy comes with <a href="https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-reviews/renault">Renault’s 4+ complementary aftercare package</a>, which includes a four-year, 100,000-mile warranty, four years of routine servicing, four years of finance, and four years of breakdown cover – should your range anxiety turn into roadside embarrassment.

 
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When is a car not a car? When it’s a quadricyle. Think of the Twizy as somewhere between a car and a motorcycle, or a milk float and a Zoe, maybe. It’s tiny, for one, about a foot shorter than a Smart ForTwo, and looks like no other car you’ve ever seen. It seats two in tandem-style, one behind the other, and is propelled by a 17bhp electric motor that drives the rear wheels. It is a zero emissions vehicle, so bang on-trend. It has doors, after a fashion, but they’re an option. Ditto the windows, which, like the doors, don’t do much to keep out inclement weather anyway.

Hop in, through the scissor doors (if fitted) that rise up and out of your way like a supercar’s, and you’ll be surprised to find a quite conventional driving position, with a normal steering wheel and even some familiar instruments. The seat can slide back a little, but that’s about the limit of adjustability. There’s a lot of hard plastics, which, as it might get quite wet in there, is probably advisable.

Driving the Twizy is a doddle: hit the button marked D, release the handbrake and you’re off. Acceleration feels initially brisk, as in most electric cars, but soon tails off. Top speed is a mere 50mph. The range is quoted as 43 miles on a full charge. The steering responds well, and the Twizy feels agile, pert even. Its levels of grip on its skinny tyres is fairly limited, but you’re unlikely to run into great difficulties with it, and it handles reasonably safely, ploughing straight on in corners taken at far too much speed.

Alas what lets it down dynamically on the road is the quality of its ride, which is close to abysmal. Hit minor irregularities and you’ll see and hear them and feel them; hit a large pothole or a speed hump and it’ll feel like the whole suspension is made of concrete, so stiff and unpleasant is it.

It has the further added benefit of being cheap to buy, and cheap to run. However, you need to consider that once you’ve bought your Twizy you will also have to lease the battery, which will be an additional monthly cost. You should also bear in mind the car’s two-star Euro NCAP safety rating. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

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Used Renault Twizy 2012-present review

Our recommendations

Which used Renault Twizy city-car should I buy?