Renault confirms it will build 4ever retro-themed EV

PARIS -- Renault has confirmed it will launch a small electric vehicle inspired by the iconic Renault 4. The EV is expected to launch in 2025, with the working name Renault 4ever.

It will be the second retro-themed small EV to be launched under CEO Luca de Meo, following the Renault 5 revealed earlier this year.

The Renault 5, which will appear in early 2024, will spawn at least two derivatives, the 4ever and a performance-oriented small car for the Alpine brand, de Meo said at Renault Group’s "ElectroPop" EV strategy presentation Wednesday.

The three cars will be built on a new – but not all-new – electric-only platform called CMF-BEV. The architecture has a new center section to accommodate a flat battery pack, but 50 percent of its components come the existing Renault-Nissan CMF-B platform, Renault’s engineering chief Gilles Le Borgne said.

Le Borgne said the CMF-BEV platform would be critical to reducing overall EV costs by 33 percent from the current Zoe small car, which has been in Renault’s lineup since 2012. 

"We'll make the best out of our platform for small EVs," he said of CMF-BEV, adding that the Renault 4-inspired EV has been named "4ever internally to signal our intention to make it an instant classic."

The three models are among 10 EVs that Renault Group will introduce by 2025, including seven for the core Renault brand. Another key model teased by de Meo on Wednesday is a Renault brand compact based on the group’s other EV platform, CMF-EV for compact and larger models that debuts on the Megane EV at the end of this year.

By 2030, 90 percent of Renault brand vehicles sold in Europe will be EVs, de Meo said, with the remainder hybrids. As for the rest of the group, Alpine will be an EV-only brand, and budget brand Dacia will be 10 percent EV by 2030, with a large percentage of hybrids. The electrification for Renault’s Russian brand, Lada, will depend on Russian regulations, de Meo said.

The group plans to invest 10 billion euros over the next five years in electrification, with alliance partner Nissan also expected to spend at least that amount. The two automakers will share the CMF-BEV and CMF-EV platforms, with total alliance EV production expected to be at least 1 million by 2025, roughly evenly split between them, de Meo said.

De Meo declined to provide more details on the Renault 4ever, but the original Renault 4 was a high-riding hatchback that today would be called a crossover. More than eight million were sold globally during a 33-year production run that started in 1961. A new version could complement the successful Renault Captur small SUV, which has full-hybrid and plug-in hybrid versions but not a full-electric option.

The three models will be built at Renault’s planned EV production hub in northern France, likely at the assembly factory in Douai.

"We have the platform localized, we have the capacity, we have a sales plan with relatively conservatives volumes to make sure it's run on the right cost base," de Meo said.

The Alpine small EV, which was teased in a hatchback silhouette with a rear spoiler, could differ from the Renault 5 by using a higher-performing battery. De Meo outlined a two-pronged battery strategy for Renault that will be based on nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) chemistry. So-called "Gen 1 performance" batteries will first appear on the Megane, with two more generations by 2030, while the "Gen 1 affordable" batteries will appear on the Renault 5, with a second generation by 2028.

The first full-electric Alpine model will appear in 2024, de Meo said. The brand is planning three new EV models to replace the current A110, which is only available with a nonhybrid gasoline engine. One will be a sports-car model, potentially developed with Lotus, and the third is expected to be a high-performance crossover or SUV.