Style-focused electric city car forms part of Renault’s push to launch seven EVs by 2025
The new Renault 5 electric supermini has been shown on stage at Goodwood’s Festival of Speed, as it gears up for a market launch in 2024.
Priced from around $32,000 in Europe, the EV concept is on display all weekend on the French car makers’s stand.
It was first shown at the Munich motor show last year and is set to be part of a major new plan to revive Renault’s fortunes and will sit on the Renault Group’s new CMF-BEV platform for small electric cars.
Company boss Luca de Meo said the use of the new platform and revamped battery tech will enable the firm to sell the 5 for about 33 per cent less than a current Zoe.
Renault has also confirmed the new 5 will use new powertrain technology and nickel, manganese and cobalt-based (NCM) batteries that, it says, will dramatically reduce the cost per kWh to around $100 by 2030. Renault added that the 5 will have a range of around 400km.
The Renault 5 Prototype takes styling and design cues from the Clio’s predecessor that Renault produced from 1972 to 1996. It’s set to be one of 14 new models – including seven fully electric vehicles – that the French brand will launch by 2025. It was shown at Munich alongside the new Mégane E-Tech, which uses the larger CMF-EV platform.
It will also be joined by a new version of the Renault 4 supermini, called the 4ever.
The French firm originally revealed the new 5 concept during the unveiling of the ‘Renaulution’ strategic plan devised by new boss Luca de Meo last year. The 5 Prototype city car will be a key part of Renault’s push for 30 per cent of its sales to be of electric vehicles by 2025.
De Meo, who during his time at Fiat was key in reviving the Fiat 500, said: “I know from experience that reinventing a cult products lights a fire under the whole brand. This is a cult vehicle at a price many can afford. And this is only the beginning for the whole Renault brand.”
The Renault 5 Prototype is an electric-only model, with a design that features numerous references to various versions of the original 5, including the cult classic Supercinq and R5 Turbo versions, albeit given a modern EV twist. The front headlights are modelled on the original design, while there’s a front-mounted EV charging port located where the radiator grille was placed on the original.
Renault design chief Gilles Vidal said: “The design of the Renault 5 Prototype is based on the R5, a cult model of our heritage. This prototype simply embodies modernity, a vehicle relevant to its time: urban, electric, attractive.”
The showcase features wider rear wheel arches and a red stripe livery that nods to the R5 Turbo hot hatch, hinting at the prospect of a high-performance version of the new model. Indeed, recently, performance brand Alpine confirmed that it is working on its own version of the 5, which will arrive shortly after the standard car, using the same 215bhp powertrain as the Mégane E-Tech Electric.
Described as a city car, the model will replace the hugely successful Zoe EV as Renault’s compact electric hatch.
James Attwood
Keyword: Renault 5 shown in the metal at Goodwood