Renault, Smart, Cupra Launch Small EVs to Counter China
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- Renault is launching the Twingo E-Tech (€19,490 in France, ~£18,000 UK launch next year) with a 27.5kWh battery delivering 163 miles of range, while its slightly larger R5 E-Tech won the 2025 European Car of the Year award; Renault cut Twingo development to two years and parts to 750 from 1,500–2,000.
- Smart (a Mercedes-Geely joint venture since 2019) is reviving the Fortwo as the electric #2, designed in Europe but engineered and built in China; product director Xuan-Zheng Goh calls small-car design "a real big challenge."
- Cupra's electric Raval (from £23,785) is a "gamechanger" per CEO Markus Haupt, who says VW Group production costs should match petrol cars "by end of this or beginning of next decade."
- Chinese rivals BYD (Dolphin Surf) and Leapmotor (T03, distributed via Stellantis) are targeting Europe's small-car segment, prompting EU tariffs imposed last year and new "Made in Europe" rules that risk excluding the UK.
- Average car length grew 5% to 4.41m and width nearly 4% to 1.82m between 2016–2024 per Dutch government statisticians; the compact EV field is now expanding with Citroën ë-C3, Peugeot E-208, Mini Cooper Electric, Fiat 500e, Volkswagen ID. Polo, plus quadricycles like Citroën Ami and Micro Microlino.
- Renault design chief Laurens van den Acker said "The world is not going to be saved by big SUVs that are electric," noting road transport accounts for about a fifth of EU emissions — pressure that makes small EVs essential to meeting emissions targets.
Why it matters: European carmakers see small EVs as both competitive and regulatory necessity — Cupra's Raval, Renault's Twingo, and Smart's #2 arrive just as battery costs fall toward petrol-parity by the end of the decade, while EU 'Made in Europe' rules risk shutting out UK-made cars. Cupra CEO Markus Haupt argues those same rules will attract Chinese factory investment to Europe.
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