The new Renault 5 electric hatchback is set to cost around £18,500 when it goes on sale in 2030.
The revived nameplate will be part of a major new plan to revive the French firm's fortunes, and will sit on Group Renault's new CMF-BEV platform for small electric cars.
Speaking during a Renault electropop event, company boss Luca de Meo said that the use of the new platform and revamped battery tech would enable the firm to sell the 5 for about 33% less than a current Zoe. With an entry-level Zoe costing £27,505, that suggests a target starting price for the 5 of around £18,500.
The firm has also confirmed the new 5 will use new powertrain technology and Nickel, Manganese and Cobalt (NCM)-based batteries that it says will dramatic reduce the cost per kWh to around £58 by 2030. Renault added that the 5 would have a range of around 400km (248 miles).
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 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 this morning. The 5 Prototype city car will be a key part of Renault’s push for 30% of its sales to be of electric vehicles by 2025.
De Meo, who during his time at Fiat was key in reviving the 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.”
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The Renault 5 had some clever design details inherited from the Renault 4 particularly in the suspension (the Gordini showed these could also be optimised for performance not just comfort) which would suit an electric vehicle well. But I assume Renault wants to use the modern compromised Clio setup not go back to the original?
Love the idea of calling the original Renault 4 a "supermini." Presume the writer has never driven one. Even amongst its contemporaries it was a sub-mini - espcially in size as it was, for the time, roomy, so not very mini. Three gears and a top speed of maybe 50 mph. Ventilation by swiveling cardboard cut outs in what passed for a dashboard. The gear lever came out horizontally and you changed gear in a pushme-pullyou fashion. Not to say it was a bad car. It was a suberb upgrade on the 2CV concept and I'd love one today. But a supermini? Never in your life.
Why bother reviving the 5 name anyway, apart from exciting old car writers. The target market for the car won't have been born when the 5 was around (probably a good thing bearing in mind just how unreliable they were)