50,000 people queuing for electric Renault 5

The French car manufacturer Renault is hoping it has a winner on its hands with the upcoming Renault 5 BEV. The company says it already has 50,000 orders on the waiting list just a few days after its official debut at the Geneva Motor Show.

“We have a waiting list of 50,000 people,” Renault brand CEO Fabrice Cambolive told Automotive News Europe. “We will open orders in May, and we’ll start to deliver cars in September or October.” He also added that in 2023, 50% of Renault’s sales were retail and 50% were fleet, so he is expecting that 40% of Renault 5 sales will be fleet as well.

At the production start, the new electric R5 will have a 52 kWh battery pack (± 400 km range), but it will also be available with a smaller battery at 40 kWh, with a 300 km range. Cambolive stipulates that this version will launch a few months after the one with the larger battery.

Biggest volumes in B-segment

Renault’s brand CEO also told Automotive News Europe that the brand aims to bring its Zoe drivers over to the Renault 5, but doesn’t see the car in direct competition with the Clio, the second-best-selling car in Europe last year, which is available in a hybrid version but not all-electric.

“The ICE cars we are selling are mostly full-hybrid, so they are very efficient,” he said. “Regarding our EV strategy, we are going to continue our progress on cutting costs and transfer some of the gains to the cost of the car to have more competitiveness in the future.”

“But even more than that, after launching two EVs in the C-segment (Megane and, very recently, Scenic, elected Car of the year 2024, editors note), we will make the shift to EVs in the B-segment thanks to the Renault 5 and the Renault 4 (due in 2025). The biggest volumes in the shift will come in the B-segment.”

Ampere

Renault’s electric division Ampere aims to offer a total of seven fully electric models by 2030. Among them are the electric Megane, the Scenic, the R5, and the R4, followed by the new low-cost Twingo in 2026, which should cost less than € 20,000.

The exact prices for the R5 are not known yet but should turn around € 25,000. Direct competitors will be the Citroën ë-C3 and upcoming Fiat Panda electric from Stellantis, the VW ID.2 (in 2025 at the earliest), and several Chinese subcompacts queuing to come to Europe.