Renault 5, Renault 4 and Alpine A290 get huge discount thanks to £3,750 Electric Car Grant

The big-selling Renault 5 has just received a huge extra price cut of more than £2,000 as the electric supermini, as well as its larger and sportier siblings, now qualifies for the top level of the Government’s Electric Car Grant.

Since August, the Auto Express Affordable Electric Car of the Year – as well as the more spacious Renault 4 and the high-performance Alpine A290 – have been offered with the base ‘Band 2’ level of ECG funding, which equates to a discount of £1,500. This brought the base price of each model down to £21,495, £27,195 and £32,000 respectively.

But now, the 52kWh 'Comfort Range’ versions of the Renault 5, as well as all versions of the R4 and Alpine – both of these cars come with the larger battery pack as standard – now qualify for the top-tier £3,750 ‘Band 1’ grant, which brings prices down even further. As such, an R5 Comfort Range in mid-spec 'techno+' trim will now set you back just £23,945, while the R4 starts from £23,445 in base 'evolution+' guise. The A290 now also comes in at just over £30k, with prices from £30,245 for the GT+ model.

There are two main reasons why Renault says its cars are now eligible for the upper-level grant. Firstly, Renault has now had its Science Based Target (SBT) for sustainability approved – one of the key hurdles stopping the likes of Hyundai from getting the full grant for its EV line-up. 

Newer Renault 4, 5 and A290 models, designated by a ‘+’, will also have their batteries produced in Automotive Energy Supply Corporation’s new gigafactory in Douai, which is supposedly powered by green energy.

This announcement comes shortly after Chancellor Rachel Reeves confirmed in the 2025 Autumn Budget that the Electric Car Grant would receive an additional £1.3 billion in funding, on top of the initial £650 million pledged earlier this year.

Such a cash injection will extend the scheme by around a year, until March 2030. It should provide a little extra breathing room in terms of the coffers running dry; with 35,000 drivers having already benefited from the grant, more than £52 million has already been spent in the first few months of operation.

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