As part of the "zero efficiency" program, Renault offered buyers three electric models, among which the Twizy stands out the most. It offers a safer alternative to scooters, but it is not cheap. It does offer a cage, a steering wheel with an "airbag" and seat belts, but due to the electric drive, it is also quite expensive. That is why it is and will remain exotic.
Urban mobility is always a current topic and we always encounter two main questions around this topic: costs and safety. In the case of traveling by bus, it is time-consuming, inconvenient, although cheap and safe. Everything is fine and dandy with a bicycle, as the price is low, emissions are the same, but what if safety is also low due to poor infrastructure. Young people often choose scooters, but safety is even more questionable here, even though the costs and emissions are relatively low. Some segways or other similar exotics did not catch on or were too expensive. Well, it definitely belongs to the latter, at least for now renault twizy, which is of a kind a hybrid between a scooter and electric by car, but it offers four wheels, a steering wheel, a cage, but still a concrete amount of wind, due to the half-open sides.
When you first meet and sit in a twizya, you think, this can't be safe, because it's a can on four wheels. You are also lower in the ride than most participants, but the feeling in the ride is surprisingly good. You could call it "Sponski", because the driver immediately gets used to it electric drive, which ensures that you are lightning fast with it, at least from one traffic light to another.
The one behind will get most of the piss and water
Starting the vehicle requires a bit of getting used to, as the vehicle it doesn't have a gearbox, and has only three buttons for switching between drives or direction of travel, under which there is also an uncharacteristic parking brake. When starting, of course, you can't hear whether the car is running or not, only the light with the word GO between the gauges informs you of this. These, like the rest of the interior, are fairly ascetic, as they are also thin seats placed one behind the other, but they are more comfortable than they seem at first glance. In essence, the passenger "hugs" you with his legs, similar to the one on a motorcycle, and at least at first the safety belt, which is inexplicably double and has a pretensioner, is confusing. Safety was a big factor in the design of this "little car", as the driver has a steering wheel in front of him, similar to the one in the Megane, which also hides an airbag, and in addition, it also protects the passenger. safety cage.
It still takes getting used to, yes pages are not full and that they let in a specific amount of wind noise, even though it's never really windy in the cabin. It is true, however, that in the case of heavy rain, as in the case of our testing, you will not be completely dry, as many drops will go inside, although you will not experience another flood. Basically, the one sitting behind will be worse off than the driver, as he will be the recipient of most of the water. Materials that are mostly made of plastic and foam are also suitable for this, so you can simply wipe off water or dirt.
Driving even without a driving test
As for motorization, they are available two performance versions namely, the electric motor can handle either 4 or 13 kW, which is somewhat equivalent to the power of a 50 or 125 cubic meter scooter. This is also why the weaker version can also be driven by younger people (and of course others too), without a B-category driving test, correspondingly, the maximum speed is also limited, namely to 45 km/h. Well, in the case of the tester, we had a more powerful version with 13 kW or 17 hp, which drives the twizya up to 80 km/h, which is quite enough for driving around the city and its two-lane roads, because you never feel in a subordinate position. The car quickly develops a speed of around 60 km/h from a standstill, but at higher speeds it increases somewhat more slowly, but still steadily. Reach twizya amounts to about 100 km, in reality and with the drop in temperature, you can "calm" for about 80 km with full batteries. However, twizy allows all charging methods, including fast charging, so that you will be back on the road quickly when the batteries are empty.
As for the luggage compartment, the tester was unable to test the specific trunk, but there is also a version that offers a luggage compartment instead of the second seat (photo of such a model is attached - white color), so the buyer has to decide on one or the other. But it has a twizy inside two medium sized drawers, of which it is one can be locked, where we can put a phone or a small women's purse.
READ MORE: Renault twizy – an electric four-wheeler for young people
At the same time, it should be known that vehicle also does not lock, although hand to heart, most misfits will not know how to open side pages, which sin the style of super athletes open upwards. The manufacturer also offers numerous options for personalization in the form of stickers, but, hand on heart, visibility in traffic is already taken care of as standard, as both young and old turn to it. That's also why we compared visibility in traffic in the title to a famous Swedish super athlete, because you actually feel that way.
Finally, we come back to the price, namely the question of how expensive this type of transport is. Prices start at seven thousand euros, as much as the twizy 45 costs, for a more powerful version (as the tester was) you need to add 800 euros. In addition, the owner then has to add more every month 50 euros for battery rental, where, as with the ZOE, Renault service technicians take care of its operation and, if necessary, its replacement.
The price is the same as the classic clio
Thus, in the introductory comparison, Twizy definitely means ecological driving and fast mobility, which is also safer than riding a scooter. but the price compared to electric scooters is still significantly (even several times) higher, which means that twizy is and will remain exotic. At least on our roads. It's a shame because the price isn't a bit more favorable anyway, because for this money you can already get something Clia or a similar model, which although has a classic engine, but offers much greater utility and at the same time safety, even for up to five passengers.
With this, I think we have answered the question of what young people and their parents will decide in advance when the debate about mobility and buying a car comes to the table.
