A previous report in Automotive News Europe suggests that the model could be built at Renault’s factory in Novo Mesto, Slovenia.
It would neatly fill the gap left by the ICE Twingo, which is still available in some left-hand-drive markets, but is nearing 10 years old.
The Twingo will be priced at less than €20,000 (£17,000), which Renault Group claims will cost less than €100 (£87) per month.
The Capital Market Day financial event also serves as a launch for the Ampere firm, a new standalone company within Renault Group. Officially launched on November 1, it will design, engineer manufacture and market EVs in Europe – although models will be sold under the Renault brand. It will have around 35,000 employees.
A key focus for Ampere will be on achieving price parity between EVs and ICE vehicles. It will focus on B- and C-segment models using two existing Renault Group EV platforms. B-segment cars such as the 5, 4 and Twingo will be built on the Ampr Small (previously CMF-BEV) architecture, with C-segment cars including the Mégane and Scenic using Ampr Medium (previously CMF-EV).
Ampere claims that has a plan to reduce variable costs for the second generation of bespoke C-segment EVs, which it describes as “Megane and Scenic successors”. These will arrive by 2027/28 with a focus on a 50% reduction in battery cost per vehicle, a 25% reduction in powertrain and platform costs and a 15% reduction in upper-body vehicle costs. It also claims it will refine its operations to reduce manufacturing and logistic costs by half.
The Mégane is already on sale, with the Scenic set to join it shortly. The 5 will be launched in production form early next year, followed by the more rugged 4 in 2025, and the Twingo is tipped to arrive in 2026.
Ampere said that two additional cars will then arrive as part of its second generation of EVs, growing its line-up of European Renault EVs to seven by 2031. By that point, the firm is aiming to sell around a million EVs per year, up from around 300,000 currently.