Renault Twizy Review

Performance

It might have about the same power as a pizza delivery scooter, but the Twizy feels quite perky away from a standstill. Electric motors give all of their power from the moment you touch the accelerator pedal, so you are unlikely to be embarrassed (or beaten by cyclists) when pulling away from traffic lights or pulling onto a roundabout. 

As the speedo climbs though, the perkiness tails off and at the 50 mph top speed it flattens off completely. Not that you’d really want to be going much faster, as the Twizy bounces and gets blown about.

So this isn’t a car you’d want to take on the motorway. It might survive a short stint on a dual carriageway but really it only feels at home on city streets, where it’s good low speed punch and diminutive size mean it will be as fast across a congested town as any supercar.

Drive

As long as the sun is shining and you don’t mind attracting attention, the Renault Twizy is great fun to drive. Once you have worked out the slightly complicated starting procedure (a combination of twisting keys, stepping on brakes and pressing buttons) then you can zip into traffic easily. The steering is unassisted so has a very go-kart like feel, but the extra weight at parking speeds will be a surprise to modern car drivers who have become used to power steering. 

While weaving through tight gaps is a joy in towns, it's crucial to remember that there are wheels in each corner which are the extremities of the Twizy. It’s easy to forget and run over kerbs.

The brakes are strong though, and tapping the pedal turns the motor into a generator which puts power back into the battery.

While you drive along you can actually watch the suspension work absorbing bumps, although it doesn’t feel like it is doing much when you are sitting in the car. It thumps through potholes and you feel every lump in the road. It’s fun, but the novelty wears off in winter or wet weather.