Renault Twingo Getting Ready For Its Mid-Life Facelift

The Renault Twingo, one of Europe’s quirkiest small city cars, is getting ready for its first visit to the plastic surgeon.

The French mini will be subjected to subtle cosmetic tweaks front and rear, with redesigned bumpers and tweaked lights all around along with a refreshed color palette but the biggest change should come from under the skin.

The partially camouflaged test car you see in the gallery does a good job of not revealing the styling changes but it does show a new exhaust, backing rumors of Renault replacing the existing 0.9-liter turbo petrol with a bigger 1.0-liter TCe unit.

The new engine will be slightly more powerful than the existing 90hp unit and is expected to better fuel economy and lower emissions, as it will be fitted with a particulate filter due to Europe’s latest rules.

The interior will also be updated with new color and trim options, as well as a new infotainment system. Offering most of the connectivity options has become a must-have feature, even for small city cars.

The rear-engined, rear-driven Renault Twingo is also rumored to gain a pure electric version too, if the company feels there’s demand for it. Adding an electric motor and a battery pack to the Twingo’s chassis should be no problem for Renault’s engineers since the small model shares its architecture with the Smart ForFour, which is already offered with an all-electric powertrain.

The updated Renault Twingo is expected to appear in the market towards the end of the year, with a possible debut at the Frankfurt Motor Show this September.

Image Credits: CarPix for CarScoops