New Renault Twingo EV to be built in Slovenia

Renault Group and the government of Slovenia have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to produce the next all-electric Twingo in the automaker’s factory in Novo Mesto starting in 2026.

Renault CEO Luca de Meo has said the new Twingo is expected to sell for less than €20,000. It will replace the current model, which was developed with Smart (as the Forfour), and included both ICE and EV versions.

150,000 cars

Officials said production will start with an annual output of 150,000 vehicles. Slovenia’s Prime Minister Robert Golob and Renault executives signed the MoU at the plant, which has been producing Renault vehicles since 1973.

“Today, we are signing the commitment of Renault and the government to jointly develop a production line for a new electric car at this location,” Golob said. A few days ago, he confirmed that the new Twingo would be built in Slovenia.

Plant officials said the deal would enable the Novo Mesto factory to sustain production and retain the 1,400 current employees after a previous deal to produce the current Twingo and electric Twingo models ended. The factory currently builds the Renault Clio small car in a single shift.

Silver bullet

Luca de Meo described the new Twingo as a “silver bullet for sustainable urban mobility” and compared it to Japanese kei cars—low-cost urban runabouts with tiny gasoline engines.

Renault claims the Twingo would cost less than €100 monthly and have “best-in-class” energy consumption of 10 kWh/100 km, up to 50% better than current small EVs. The Twingo is expected to be based on a version of the AmpR Small platform that underpins the new electric Renault 5.

Renault and Volkswagen Group had been in talks to share development costs for the new Twingo, with VW getting its own version. However, talks broke down this spring, and each company will develop its own low-cost EVs. The powerful unions at Volkswagen didn’t want their car to be built with the Twingo in Slovenia.

Chinese connection

Renault announced in May that instead, it would work with a Chinese engineering company to develop the Twingo. “The car’s development will be done with a Chinese partner to improve our development lead time and costs,” a Renault spokesperson said.

The styling and advanced engineering project is being done in France. Renault’s outgoing CTO, Gilles Le Borgne, told Automotive News Europe that the automaker aims for a Twingo production time of less than ten hours.