Why I can't wait to test the new Renault Twingo

RENAULT’S Twingo has soared straight to the top of the list of cars I’d most like to drive this year. Even though at least one of my petrolhead pals reckons it’ll be a little bit rubbish.

The argument goes that the Twingo, after 20 years of being resolutely French in its insistence on having a front-mounted engine powering the front wheels, is now a rear-engined, rear-wheel-drive car. Just like the Volkswagen Beetle your grandparents used to drive 35 years ago.

The prosecution also moans that the reason why the new car has its engine stuffed into the boot is because it’s based on the Smart – a city car not exactly renowned for its brilliant handling – and that as a result, there are no plans whatsoever for a Renaultsport hot hatch version. The new Twingo, therefore, will be a slovenly supermini that’s too tall to go around to go around corners properly with its engine in the wrong place.

None of which matters, because the Twingo’s baby brother is also afflicted by being too tall and having its engine in the wrong place. The electrically-powered Twizy, however, is one of the gems of Renault’s range. Look at a Twizy and you’d probably just laugh – it’s far too narrow, it has flimsy struts instead of doors to protect its two occupants, and it maxes out at just 45mph.

Drive one, however, and you’ll discover that it’s a mid-engined, rear-wheel drive car with skinny little tyres and a chassis set up by Renaultsport, who also did the wonderful Clio Williams and the race-bred Spyder. As a result what looks like a Government disability car for the new millennium will drift for England if you ask it to. It is utterly brilliant to drive.

 In fact, I’ll go further than that – it’s the only electric car I’ve ever actively wanted to buy with my own money, and seriously thought about saving up for until I learned you have to lease the batteries separately. To me, that’s a bit like buying the house of your dreams only to learn you have to rent the living room separately.

The new Twingo, with its four seats and its proper petrol engine which comes free with the rest of the car, has every opportunity to be similarly smile-inducing to drive without costing you a fortune in fuel and speeding tickets.

If anyone at Renault is reading this, count me in for a test drive!

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Fire up the... Renault Twizy

EVER since they cancelled kids' TV favourite Captain Planet saving the world hasn't been the same. Eco-friendliness is all very noble but it's - to my mind at least - a bit boring.

This is particularly true of electric cars, which have at best been dull and overpriced and at worst fatally flawed, but Renault's determined to change all that. With, by the looks of the utterly bonkers Twizy, something that's been styled by Gerry Anderson's production team rather than a car company's design department.

Tall in stance, open-wheeled and equipped with little bodywork other than a set of scissor doors cast in plastic rather than steel, the Twizy (which, by the way, rhymes with easy and not, as I thought, Thin Lizzy) is quite unlike anything I've clapped eyes on. In fact, the only thing that comes close in terms of visual impact is the Morgan Threewheeler I drove earlier this year, and in both instances you'll have to get used to being looked at.

So the Twizy, if you're shy, probably isn't not your bag but - and I really wasn't expecting it - it is mine. It is, if you've been raised on a diet of fast cars with noisy petrol powerplants, not exactly the last word in speed, but it's weirdly thrilling to drive because it's so nimble and because the relatively low grip from the skinny tyres offer up as much fun at 30mph as some cars struggle to do at twice that.

With electric cars it's usually at this point I say it'd be great if it weren't for an extortionate price tag, but at less than seven grand the Twizy doesn't have one.

Think of it as a car and you won't get it - it's too exposed, too impractical not plentiful in the seats department for that - but as a scooter for scaredeycats it's big fun. It's small, easy to park, kind to the environment, and because it comes with seatbags and an airbag and because you can't fall off it, a whole lot safer than taking two wheels to work. In fact, I think the Twizy's only real failing is that, with it being an entirely eco-friendly effort, Renault won't offer you one with a perkier petrol engine.

The Twizy is odd and impractical but it puts a smile on your face and has a definite ‘want one' factor. Which for me makes it a landmark in the world of electric cars.

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