Reborn electric Renault 5 shows off at Geneva car show

Renault unveiled its highly anticipated new electric Renault 5 on Monday at the Geneva Motor Show, a model directly inspired by its 1972 best-seller that the French vehicle maker hopes will bring a major boost to its electric vehicle sales.

The small hatchback, promised in 2021 as part of Renault's turnaround plan, openly copies design elements from the original Renault 5 and the brand's iconic Super 5 — including vertical taillights, bright colours. The two models sold more than 9-million cars between 1972 and 1996.

Unlike other brands that have successfully relaunched iconic models like the Mini or the Fiat 500, Renault has avoided what the brand's design director refers to “retrofuturism”.

Revamping an old model must be done “at the right time, where it resonates correctly in the history of the brand”, said Gilles Vidal, during a presentation on the R5 near Paris.

The small sedan is central to Renault’s efforts to build affordable EVs, but will not be immediately available in its cheapest version. The first version that will be launched in the second half of 2024 will have a 52 kilowatt hour (KWh) battery with a range of 400km. The company has said this will be followed “as quickly as possible” by a less powerful version — 40 KWh battery with 300km of range — for €25,000 (R525,000).

The R5, which is capable of bidirectional charging so owners can sell their battery’s energy back to the grid, will use an Envision battery pack. That pack will be imported until Envision’s gigfactory in northern France starts production in 2025.

Renault is the only major European vehicle maker presenting at the 2024 Geneva show, the first since before the coronavirus pandemic in 2019.

Reuters