Bonkers Renault Twizy EV on sale at £6,690 +video

Renault Twizy EV - now on sale in the UK

The Renault Twizy – a four wheel EV Scooter – has gone on sale in the UK this week at £6,990 plus £45 a month battery hire.

To try and make electric cars do what conventional cars can do is a pointless task; it’s just not possible, certainly without quantum leaps in battery technology which, despite endless claims to the contrary, seems highly unlikely.

But that doesn’t mean electric vehicles don’t have a place – they do. They’re great for zero emissions at point of use in urban areas and for local delivery vehicles. They’re also interesting at the extremes, like the Tesla Roadster – a rich man’s toy, but not a serious car.

And now we have something else daft in the EV world with the arrival ion the UK of the Renault Twizy EV.

The Twizy is a four-wheeled enclosed scooter come motorbike; a golf cart with attitude or an electric quad bike that’s been squeezed from the side. It’s an oddity. It’s also an expensive oddity at £6,990 plus another £45 a month for the battery hire.

That price is for the regular Twizy which comes with a 13kW motor capable of 50mph and a range of 60 miles (take that with a pinch of salt) from a three and a half hour charge from a domestic socket.

If you want a bit more than a shell with four wheels, a motor and a couple of seats, you’ll need to spend more. Scissor doors will cost you £545, metallic paint £195, a set of alloys £340 and a ‘Leisure Bag’ for carrying ‘stuff’ £95.

But odd – and expensive – though the Twizy is, we see more future for something like this than we do trying to replace a regular car with an EV. It’s funky and looks fun and could catch on as a commuter or tourist transport. You could even have a couple in your holiday home for some summer fun.

What could also catch on is a Twizy for 16 year olds (God help us all). Renault weren’t going to flog the low-powered Twizy in the UK, but now the EU ahs declared it will be drivable by 16 year olds from January 2013 it seems highly likely the Twizy 45 (with a top speed of 28mph) will go on sale next year.

For now, the regular Renault Twizy is up for sale in the UK and will be endlessly plugged everywhere you look.