Renault 5 E-Tech Gains Up to 259-Mile Range for MY27 with No Price Rise

• The Renault 5 E-Tech electric gains extra range for MY27, up to 197 miles on the entry Urban Range version and 259 miles on Comfort Range, without any price increase.
• Prices still start at £21,495 on the road, and the car still qualifies for the full £3,750 Electric Car Grant.
• New tech includes a SmartMode drive setting, a cooled wireless phone charger and Google’s Gemini AI assistant, alongside fresh colours and orders open now.

More Range and Tech, Not a Penny More

Renault has found more range for its retro-styled electric hatchback without touching the price tag. The Renault 5 E-Tech electric enters MY27 with improved aerodynamics and reworked battery electronics that stretch the entry-level Urban Range version from 40kWh and 120hp to as much as 197 miles on the WLTP cycle, while the 52kWh, 150hp Comfort Range version now covers up to 259 miles. Both figures beat the outgoing car by a useful margin, and neither costs the customer anything extra: prices still start at £21,495 on the road, and the car remains eligible for the full £3,750 Electric Car Grant.

That combination puts the Renault 5 ahead of most of its direct rivals on value. The Dacia Spring costs less to buy, from £15,990, but manages only 140 miles of range from its base battery. The Fiat Grande Panda electric, at £20,995, covers 199 miles, close to the Renault 5’s Urban Range figure but well short of the 259-mile Comfort Range version, and for roughly the same money.

A Car That Adapts to How You’re Driving

The headline new feature is SmartMode, a driving setting that switches automatically between Eco, Comfort and Sport based on how the car is being driven, sharpening the throttle for an overtake before easing off again once the driver settles back into normal traffic. Drivers who prefer to choose manually still can, through the OpenR Link touchscreen or by voice command, and Renault has removed the old Multi-Sense button from the steering wheel now that SmartMode handles more of that work automatically.

A new magnetic, cooled wireless phone charger uses the Qi2 standard, which Renault says restores up to half of a compatible phone’s battery in an hour, a genuine improvement on the slower, hotter wireless pads fitted to most cars at this price. The car’s eCall emergency system has also been upgraded to work on newer 4G and 5G networks, and Google’s Gemini AI assistant joins the Renault 5 through an optional over-the-air update, letting occupants hold a natural conversation with the car’s voice assistant rather than issuing fixed commands.

New Colours and a Fresh Interior

Two new paint colours, Flame Red and Shadow Grey, join the range later in the year, and Midnight Blue is now available with a contrasting red roofline on the techno+ and iconic five+ trims. New sticker packs arrive alongside the colours for buyers who want to personalise their car further. Inside, the iconic five+ trim swaps its yellow upholstery for a mottled blue design, with smaller stitching and trim revisions across the rest of the range.

The four-model line-up stays the same as before: entry-level evolution keeps the 40kWh Urban Range powertrain, while techno+, iconic five+ and roland garros+ all use the 52kWh Comfort Range battery. Nothing about the trim structure or equipment hierarchy has changed for MY27, only the range each version can travel and the technology fitted as standard.

The range gains come from two changes buyers will never see: aerodynamic tweaks to the car’s lower body and door mirrors, and reworked battery electronics that squeeze more usable energy from the same 40kWh and 52kWh packs. Renault has not increased battery capacity on either version, which means the extra miles come purely from efficiency gains rather than a heavier, costlier battery pack, a detail that explains how the improvements arrived without pushing the price up.

Ordering One Now

Orders for the updated Renault 5 E-Tech electric opened on 22 September, and buyers configuring one now will get the longer range and new technology without waiting for a facelift or a separate announcement. The car has already picked up multiple awards, and Renault’s approach here is simple: improve the product every year, keep the price fixed, and let the car’s retro styling and now-larger range do the work of winning over buyers still deciding whether to make the switch to electric.

For anyone who ordered an earlier Renault 5 E-Tech electric, the MY27 changes are a reminder that range figures on a young EV can move quickly without a full model change. Renault has not offered a way to retrofit the new aerodynamic parts or battery software to existing cars, so owners of the outgoing version keep their original range figures rather than gaining the extra miles. New buyers get the benefit immediately, and with orders open now, cars built to the updated specification should start reaching UK driveways within the usual production lead time.