Renault’s funky European electrical autos (EVs) stay forbidden fruit for Australia, as they don’t adjust to the identical strict security rules which have additionally impeded numerous different manufacturers in recent times.
Regardless of starting considerably of an electrical rejuvenation with the launch of the Scenic E-Tech, Renault Australia continues to be unable to introduce the model’s smaller EVs – primarily the Renault 5 E-Tech hatch – as they don’t at the moment adjust to an Australian Design Rule (ADR) concerning rear-seat youngster restraint anchorages.
Particularly, the Renault 5 (and certain the Renault 4 E-Tech and newer Twingo E-Tech) doesn’t adjust to ADR 34/03 (Little one Restraint Anchorages), which requires a top-tether anchorage level in every rear seating place fitted with a seatbelt.
This was confirmed to media on the native launch for the Scenic, with Renault Australia basic supervisor Glen Sealey stating: “The problem with Renault 5 is compliance with the ADRs. It’s the rear bench youngster restraint”.
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It’s removed from the primary time a producer has struggled with ADR 34/03, which got here into impact on November 1, 2019 for all newly launched autos, and from November 1, 2022 for all autos on sale.
Most lately, the Deepal E07 ‘Multitruck’ was recalled because of the lack of a middle-seat anchor, whereas BYD was compelled to pause deliveries of its Atto 3 EV in 2022 for a similar purpose. Honda additionally infamously launched its second-generation HR-V small SUV right here as a four-seater as a substitute of engineering an Australian-specific answer.
Moreover, Tesla launched its up to date Mannequin 3 sedan right here regardless of it being non-compliant, and whereas it later paused gross sales to rectify the difficulty, Mr Sealey stated the compliance prices for the Renault 5 can be prohibitive for the French model to comply with go well with.
“Renault tends to do issues correctly and fairly effectively, and so compliance is considered very critically,” he stated.
“I can inform you that the compliance price of simply the rear bench is about three million euro (~A$4.9 million). In order that’s testing, getting the rear bench proper, ensuring it takes double the power on that single tether level.
“It’s not an issue, it’s simply assembly an ordinary. And there’s a compliance price to the usual.”
Mr Sealey denied that such prices would kill an Australian enterprise case for the Renault 5 E-Tech, but additionally famous that his model doesn’t at the moment see the necessity to introduce further EVs in Australia past the prevailing Megane E-Tech, Kangoo E-Tech, and Scenic E-Tech.
“We by no means kill a case, we at all times go away the door open,” he stated. “However we’ve received three electrical autos in a market that’s 1.2 million and fewer than 10 per cent [of sales share] is electrical, it doesn’t want a fourth, or a fifth, or a sixth automotive.”
“Bringing in a automotive with excessive compliance prices at a really excessive value level will not be essentially going to work in a market that’s pretty effectively swamped right now.”
Certainly, EVs accounted for simply 8.3 per cent of the 1,241,037 autos offered in 2025, up from a 7.4 per cent share in 2024. Renault contributed solely 4569 to the entire gross sales determine.
“The place we sit with Renault 5 right now is we’ve received Megane E-Tech, we’ve received Scenic E-Tech, we’ve received Kangoo E-Tech, and that’s three fashions for a small model the place electrification right now is sub-10 per cent within the market. So we’re effectively coated,” Mr Sealey stated.
“What we have to do is assess that market. If electrification grew to become 40 per cent tomorrow, Renault 5 can be a a lot simpler proposition.”
The exception to European Renault EVs thwarted by ADR 34/03 is the wild Renault 5 Turbo 3E, which is out there to order in Australia instantly from the manufacturing unit in Europe – albeit for greater than $300,000. That unique electrical efficiency hatch is within the clear, because it has no rear seats in any respect.
Regardless, Mr Sealey says the Renault 5 E-Tech is a “nice branding train” for the French producer, because it was Europe’s best-selling subcompact EV in 2025 and one of many continent’s hottest EVs total.
“That automotive is well-known, it’s effectively considered, it’s selecting up numerous awards in Europe. Nevertheless, there’s a price to attending to market, and that must be taken into consideration. It’s started working,” he stated.
“Any automotive we do has to work for the [manufacturer] – be worthwhile – or it’s not price doing. It’s started working for the supplier community, however most significantly, it’s started working for the shopper. So when you’ve got [a manufacturer] proposition and a supplier proposition that doesn’t work within the market, don’t do it.”
As for the ADRs, a number of manufacturers have beforehand criticised the Australian Authorities for imposing particular rules that differ from these abroad.
Mitsubishi has criticised a number of ADRs, together with ADR 34/03, whereas Nissan cited this regulation as one of many causes behind the delayed arrival of its Ariya electrical SUV.
Nevertheless, the Australian Authorities introduced a evaluation in late 2024 into how ADRs might be harmonised with different markets and the way the native homologation course of might be streamlined to scale back prices and shorten the time it takes for a car to be licensed on the market regionally.
Regardless of public suggestions submissions for the evaluation closing on January 24, 2025, the findings have but to be launched.
MORE: Deepal follows BYD, Honda and Tesla in getting snagged by Australian regulation