Electric Renault Twizy to cost more than a car

Renault’s electric go-kart with a roof – the Renault Twizy – will cost from £6,990, plus an extra £40 a month to lease the batteries.

What exactly is a Renault Twizy? It’s a fair enough question. Is it a miniature car? No, not really. A beefed-up motorcycle? No, it’s more than that. A tall go-kart with a roof? Perhaps.

What the Twizy actually is is a toy for better-off city dwellers. It’s got four wheels, an electric motor, no doors, a pair of tandem seats and will be an absolute hoot zipping around town.

Renault claim it’s as nippy as a scooter and as silent as a milk float. It is also zero emission at point of use – always handy in a city. Sounds great. How much? Ah, therein lies the problem.

The tall go-kart with a roof comes in at £6,990. That’s right, £6,990. Or, if you prefer a few more toys, it’ll cost you £7,400 for the Technic version. Which is as much as a ’59 Ibiza SC. Or a ’10 reg 107. Or even a brand new Harley Sportster 1200C. Wow.

But never mind, electricity is tuppence of nothing so you’ll save a fortune on fuel, right? Wrong. On top of the not inconsiderable price you’ll also have to stump up £40 a month to lease the batteries, and that’s a three year commitment and for only 4500 miles a year.

Which means your battery lease will cost as much as the fuel for the Peugeot 107 to do the same mileage. Except you can fill the 107 up in a couple of minutes. The Twizy will take 3.5 hours.

The 107 will also seat four, protect you from the elements, has a range of 500 miles (not 50), will do 100mph not 50mph and outperform the Twizy in every single way except an ability to squeeze through small gaps.

But all that said, if we lived in central London (and we had somewhere to actually charge it), we’d love a Twizy.