Renault 5 vs VW ID.Polo

The Renault 5 is £950 cheaper to buy. Running costs are almost identical - about £120 a year either way, at 8,000 miles on an off-peak home tariff. Add 5 years of charging and the Renault 5 comes out roughly £830 cheaper overall. These figures cover list price and home charging only - insurance, servicing, tyres and depreciation will move the real total.

EVcarsguide estimates a real-world motorway range of about 160 miles for the Renault 5 and 170 miles for the VW ID.Polo - effectively matched, and both well below their WLTP figures because sustained high speed is the hardest case for an EV. A rapid charge to 80% takes around 31 minutes in the Renault 5 and 23 in the VW ID.Polo, so the VW ID.Polo loses less time at each stop.

The two are within 8 mm on width, so neither is meaningfully easier to thread into a tight space. In a standard 2,400 mm bay that leaves about 592 mm of total clearance for the Renault 5 and about 584 mm of total clearance for the VW ID.Polo. The Renault 5 also turns in a 0.6 m tighter circle, which helps with U-turns and multi-storey ramps.