2023 Renault Twizy, or: Calimero the amusing commuter egg
Discussion
DaveTheRave87 said:
I remember there was the issue of 'battery rental' when these 1st came out.
Is this still a thing?
Gladly the battery rental nonsense is no more. Since 2021 Renault does sell the Twizy as a whole package. - I actually had no knowledge about this only three weeks ago, but learning about it at random I immediately placed my order. Is this still a thing?
Granted you pay for the battery anyway, but the (atleast to me) unpleasant "careful-it's-not-yours" feeling isn't present. Maybe a bit silly of me but hey I'm that sort of a guy.
lipadier said:
unpc said:
How well do the doors seal on these as I no longer enjoy being cold and wet?
You're well protected from the airstream itself, but you're still outside, which means you have to dress according to like you would if you took a walk the same way on a windstill day. - The main differences to walking however are that your bum is cosy because you're sitting on a peace of insulating foam, you always have a umbrella over your head, and that you will reach your destination in minutes, and with a big smile on your face. 
Btw, in regards to smiles, what suprised me most so far during the last week is the tacky awesomeness of the scissor doors. It's hard to describe but they just feel so modern and cool. People will stare at you anyway in positive amusement, but it's a joy to see how their faces light up even more when you open the door. - I can't deny it, the positive attention this thing gets is very pleasing to my inner 10yo self.
Edited by lipadier on Friday 28th April 08:50
lipadier said:
Gladly the battery rental nonsense is no more. Since 2021 Renault does sell the Twizy as a whole package. - I actually had no knowledge about this only three weeks ago, but learning about it at random I immediately placed my order.
Granted you pay for the battery anyway, but the (atleast to me) unpleasant "careful-it's-not-yours" feeling isn't present. Maybe a bit silly of me but hey I'm that sort of a guy.
For me, the drawback was buying a vehicle for cheap motoring then shelling out £40 a month in "fuel."Granted you pay for the battery anyway, but the (atleast to me) unpleasant "careful-it's-not-yours" feeling isn't present. Maybe a bit silly of me but hey I'm that sort of a guy.
May as well continue spending £40 a month on petrol.
Glad to see Renault has seen sense here too.
unpc said:
Do the doors do a good job of keeping the rain out too? If I had one it would have to live outside for now due to projects.
The inside of the open Twizy is designed to get wet, and it will do at some point when parked up and the rain comes in sideways. There are actually numerous draining holes in the floor for that case, one even in the drivers seat.The doors are really more there to protect you from spray water (including from your own front wheels) and because the doors have to scissor past the roof they will get wet on the inside too as naturally they have to stick out more to the sides than the roof itself. But the middle part of the Twizy including yourself will stay dry, even in heavy rain, which is quite amazing, I already went on a few "how-wet-will-I-get" drives to test this and I didn't get wet at all:
- Btw 1, my Twizy will always be outside, summer or winter. As soon as I have the side windows delivered I will report back in this thread how they work.
- Btw 2, some of my coworkers were quite baffled why the heck I would buy a old people mobility scooter by the looks of it! I even heard the word "Bügeleisen" (engl: electric iron)
...but after they had a go in it, these words were mostly taken back. Ha!And as mentioned before, for sure the novelty will wear off at some day, but currently (since one week infact) I just can't stop driving it, it's so damn addictive!
Edited by lipadier on Friday 28th April 17:26
I have fitted heated seats front and rear in mine - they run off the 12v battery that is topped up by the traction battery.
The powerbox is well worth having and doubles the torque and doesn’t affect range all that much.
I had mine wrapped as my daughter wanted it.
I have the full windows. They are great and just 3 bolts to remove for summer.
The powerbox is well worth having and doubles the torque and doesn’t affect range all that much.
I had mine wrapped as my daughter wanted it.
I have the full windows. They are great and just 3 bolts to remove for summer.
Richtea1970 said:
Didn’t realise they still made these, certainly seems perfect for your situation.
And a pretty class-less car, you feel like anyone could be driving one and having a ball!
I have a full fat Rangie and generally that is a hated car by many, the Twizy seems to be loved by all ages. I use mine for the school run and the amount of parents and kids from other schools that wave every morning is amazing. Wherever you go you get waves and comments….it is like when I drive my pug 205 but turned up to the max.And a pretty class-less car, you feel like anyone could be driving one and having a ball!
I think Renault just hit the market way too early and messed up with the battery lease (I bought mine out after a few months). If it was launched today with an owned battery then I think it could do much better. They don’t make them in France anymore and you can’t buy them in the U.K. either as a new car unless there is old stock. They are now made in Korea and I suspect they will do well in those markets.
There was talk of the 45 being used for 16 yr olds but I have looked in to it and nobody has ever done it As far as I can find. I would be far happier with my daughter driving one of these at 16 than a little moped.
^ I was amazed myself that you can still buy them here in Switzerland. It's been what, 11 or 12 years since the launch?! But here they only sell the 80 version and either in black or white. And that's it. And while the black one may look cooler, I prefer a white example because I think it can be seen better by other motorists. - I may even put a antenna on it with a small orange triangle flag on top, so that it looks like a RC car. 
When ordering it I got informed that there was a waiting time of up to 6 months! - But I got lucky because they found a white showroom model in a big Renault dealership in Zürich, it had arrived there from Korea in February this year, and they released it for me. - With that it just took 10 days over easter from me placing my order until I drove away with it from my local dealership. - As mentioned it has a built-in Bluetooth/Audio system that I didn't order (the speakers are above your ears) and like every extra in a car it was way overpriced (400 SFR = 361 GPB!) but for once I paid happily for it (but haven't even touched it so far), and in relation it was a small price to pay for happily having a Twizy already over summer instead of waiting for it until September.
Btw, I did a out-of-town high speed run yesterday evening, meaning I went full tilt (pedal to themetal plastic LOL) all the time and always a tic over (= 65 in a 60km/h zone, 75 in a 70, and 85 in a 80) to see how the range will be affected when driving it like I just stole it and was on the run from the rozzers. Result: I will do about 60km (38mi) this way instead of 80km (50mi). - But boy was it fun!! I think I will drive it like this every time from now on!
There was light rain and some wind and it was all very dramatic:
When ordering it I got informed that there was a waiting time of up to 6 months! - But I got lucky because they found a white showroom model in a big Renault dealership in Zürich, it had arrived there from Korea in February this year, and they released it for me. - With that it just took 10 days over easter from me placing my order until I drove away with it from my local dealership. - As mentioned it has a built-in Bluetooth/Audio system that I didn't order (the speakers are above your ears) and like every extra in a car it was way overpriced (400 SFR = 361 GPB!) but for once I paid happily for it (but haven't even touched it so far), and in relation it was a small price to pay for happily having a Twizy already over summer instead of waiting for it until September.
Btw, I did a out-of-town high speed run yesterday evening, meaning I went full tilt (pedal to the
There was light rain and some wind and it was all very dramatic:
Edited by lipadier on Saturday 29th April 09:45
I think the Twizy is a great little commuter vehicle.
I’ve bookmarked this.
I’ve missed out on a couple that were being sold on FB market place for reasonable money. They seemed to sell very quickly. I don’t *need* one, but I want one, and in Luxembourg they get the little moped type number plates (2x2 registration).
I’ve bookmarked this.
I’ve missed out on a couple that were being sold on FB market place for reasonable money. They seemed to sell very quickly. I don’t *need* one, but I want one, and in Luxembourg they get the little moped type number plates (2x2 registration).
Took my dashcam (DJI Action 2) out of the Audi and plonked it into the Twizy. Btw, I haven't moved the S6 since 1 1/2 weeks, might as well sell it.
Here we go from a 50kmh (31mph) to a 60km/h (37mph) and then a bit after the roundabout into a 80kmh (50mph) zone. No problem to keep up, in the contrary as the car infront never went faster than 75km/h (46mph) at all. But that's not important, important is the freaking jet engine sound the Twizy makes (especially from 0:45 onwards when the chill pill infront finally wakes up). - That spooling-up noise is a hoot!
Btw, if you're in the UK, just watch this through a mirror...
Yeah, I'm still totally addicted, honeymoon phase and all that: Go for a drive, come home, charge, and off we go again! Inbetween I go to work a tad and be a gentlemen to the GF for a few minutes. Of course there are some showers and a bit of eating and sleeping too, but other than that, it's always TWIZY!-time.
Meanwhile I've already developed a eagle-eye for any outdoor socket. This one here wasn't even on the Chargemap-app, I've simply spotted it whilst driving by. - "Wohehey, hello, you look unused and free!" - I plugged the Twizy in for 20mins there while I munched a sandwich I've bought earlier and mocked about a bit on social media as you do nowadays, which brought the battery from 38% back up to 49%, plenty to loop about some more instead of heading home as the crow flies. Wanted it to get it to 50%, but the sandwich was gone at 49%, so 49% it was.
And for legal reasons, yes I freely admit that during those 20mins I stole that closed-for-sunday bike shop energy for 0.05 CHF (0.04 GBP)... sue me!
And yes, I'm aware of that phone-holder tank-tape hackjob, but who the heck has the time to thinker about in aestethic details when you can drive instead!?
Here we go from a 50kmh (31mph) to a 60km/h (37mph) and then a bit after the roundabout into a 80kmh (50mph) zone. No problem to keep up, in the contrary as the car infront never went faster than 75km/h (46mph) at all. But that's not important, important is the freaking jet engine sound the Twizy makes (especially from 0:45 onwards when the chill pill infront finally wakes up). - That spooling-up noise is a hoot!
Btw, if you're in the UK, just watch this through a mirror...
Yeah, I'm still totally addicted, honeymoon phase and all that: Go for a drive, come home, charge, and off we go again! Inbetween I go to work a tad and be a gentlemen to the GF for a few minutes. Of course there are some showers and a bit of eating and sleeping too, but other than that, it's always TWIZY!-time.
Meanwhile I've already developed a eagle-eye for any outdoor socket. This one here wasn't even on the Chargemap-app, I've simply spotted it whilst driving by. - "Wohehey, hello, you look unused and free!" - I plugged the Twizy in for 20mins there while I munched a sandwich I've bought earlier and mocked about a bit on social media as you do nowadays, which brought the battery from 38% back up to 49%, plenty to loop about some more instead of heading home as the crow flies. Wanted it to get it to 50%, but the sandwich was gone at 49%, so 49% it was.
And for legal reasons, yes I freely admit that during those 20mins I stole that closed-for-sunday bike shop energy for 0.05 CHF (0.04 GBP)... sue me!
And yes, I'm aware of that phone-holder tank-tape hackjob, but who the heck has the time to thinker about in aestethic details when you can drive instead!?
Edited by lipadier on Sunday 30th April 17:25
Killer2005 said:
These are so cool. I would have one myself if circumstances were right.
With a 50 mile range (at best) unfortunately the parameters for ownership are quite thin. There is a company doing replacement batteries now made from crashed jag ipace cells, they are getting 60-100 mile range I believe from the same size packs - it’s expensive but may make it a better proposition.
Allright, a 1700km (1056mi) owners review:
Pro:
Con:
And remember kids, there is always a smaller fish:
Pro:
- It's total fun to drive, and very very addictive. - There hasn't been a day so far when I drove straight home in the evening after work, instead I always go for a big loop. - I've never had a motorbike but I assume it's the same feel.
- There is actually more storage space than you would think: You have the two glove boxes (the lockable one is very deep), and a bit of trunk space behind and below the passenger seat (also lockable).
- Since the rear mudguards are very short, in heavy rain your are trailing two quite impressive roostertails, which is amusing to see in the mirrors.
- It's even smaller than you think it is. And since it has a absolute tiny front overhang it's very easy to drive out of sidestreets even with high walls or hedges on both sides.
- You can overtake tractors or similiar slow vehicles in right hand corners (or left ones from a UK perspective) because you can wave around in your lane and hence check both sides beforehand.
- You will get sick behind the wheel before you can bring this thing into a dangerous cornering situation: It's amazingly stable and the ultra-tight steering radius makes it incredibly zippy, here is me going downhill on a very curvy road:
- And suddenly some former expensive parking is now free:
Con:
- On a very steep uphill 80km/h main road you will fall back to 70km/h, it's the only situation where you can't keep up with traffic.
- Overtaking is doable but risky because of the 85km/h limiter. If you're behind somebody that does 70km/h in a flat 80 zone and you're going for it, and then the other one suddenly decides to speed up, you're screwed.
- In heavy rain going on full tilt on a older road with puddles, you can feel it starting to aquaplane.
- The rear "trunk" space is nice to have but the lid (which doubles as the passengers backrest) is quite fussy to lock back into place. - I keep a 5 meter extension cord and some additional clothing in there.
- Because the windscreen wiper area is quite small it's not easy to place a dashcam without it being conspicuous:
And remember kids, there is always a smaller fish:
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