The new Renault Twingo is the perfect car to fight the wave of small Chinese EVs
News reporter Ellis Hyde explains why the new Renault Twingo going from concept to production in only 100 weeks is such an important milestone
One hundred weeks – that’s all Renault needed to get the reborn Twingo from a violently cute but hollow show car to the production-ready model you see today, setting a new standard for European car makers.
It turns out Renault’s top executives were as stunned as we were when, on 15 November 2023, then-CEO Luca de Meo declared to the world the all-new Twingo would be ready for launch in just two years – meaning the more-than-120-year-old brand would match the speed and agility of its fresh-faced Chinese rivals.
To develop a car faster than ever before, Renault had to embrace the kind of rapid decision making only Chinese brands such as BYD and Geely were capable of until now. No more month-long discussions and endless meetings to solve simple problems – someone just raises an issue and it can be fixed immediately.
Renault went further though, establishing its own R&D centre in Shanghai called ACDC. This enabled work on the Twingo to continue “24/7”, as one executive told me, and to make use of a Chinese manufacturing ecosystem renowned for technological expertise and rapid development times.
Importantly, Renault’s Technocentre in Paris still acted as the conductor of this trans-continental orchestra, and the company didn’t just make life easy by using off-the-shelf bits. Almost everything on the Twingo is new, from the powertrain to the mechanism for the sliding rear seats.
But why should buyers care? Dramatically shorter timeframes mean reduced development costs, which then enables the Twingo to be sold at a bargain price. Yet it will still – Renault claims – be profitable, which is a bigger concern than ever for makers trying to justify small cars.
It’s also going to give the little Twingo a big competitive advantage. Volkswagen and Renault were actually in talks to collaborate on their entry-level EVs, but nothing came of it. Now the Renault Twingo is here stealing hearts and minds, and will have the market to itself for at least a year before VW’s rival steps into the ring. I guess you really can teach an old dog new tricks.
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