What's the news?

Renault has unveiled its third-generation Twingo ahead of the Geneva show in an unusual fashion - it held what was termed a 'Strip-tweet', whereby the more tweets the carmaker got, the quicker it revealed the new car... yes, quite.

Exterior

If you're well up on your concept cars and you think the Twingo looks eerily familiar, that's because it's very similar to 2013's Twin'Z electric concept, penned by British designer Ross Lovegrove. It has more of an obvious hatchback shape too, rather than featuring the upright rear so idiosyncratic of the Twingos I and II.

At the front, it features the inset spotlights that will be familiar to you if you're a fan of the facelifted Twingo II, with the big badges and wider grilles that have become Renault's hallmark. However, we think it looks a bit neater than the same treatment on the Clio, and the Twingo III should be able to compete with the fashionistas' choices in this segment, such as the Fiat 500 and MINI.

Mechanicals

Interestingly, the Twingo is going all 911 on us, as the engine is relocated to the rear of the car, thus necessitating rear-wheel drive. This is because it will be a relation to the Smart ForFour, which shares its platform.

And people always talk about three-cylinder engines sounding like half a 911 motor - well, the Twingo will be exclusively powered by triples. These will be mated to manual and dual-clutch automatic gearboxes. Linking back to the Twin'Z, there's capacity in the platform for an electric version of the Twingo too.

Anything else?

Hopefully we'll see a new Renaultsport Twingo before long. The old Twingo II 133 was a great little hot hatch and if you want an idea of what Renault is planning, have a quick internet search for Renault Twin'Run - although a production version is highly unlikely to feature that car's mid-mounted 3.5-litre V6 with 320hp, 380Nm and a Sadev sequential 'box... ah, if only.