Why is the new Renault 5 seen on the road so attractive at first glance? “Because of its proportions,” explains Gilles Vidal, Renault design director, whom we met in Nice on the occasion of the test drive dedicated to the Car of the Year jury. “To achieve the ‘instant falling in love’ effect the right proportions were first top priority and we obtained them thanks to the work of our engineering team. On such a compact and electrically powered car, this was an even bigger challenge than with a combustion engine, but our Ampere Small platform allows us a lot of flexibility.”
The formal reference for the car body – which is 3922 millimeters long, 1774 wide and 1498 mm high, with wheels positioned at the four corners of the silhouette, equipped with 18-inch wheels for all versions) comes not only from the 1972 Renault 5, but also from the Super 5 and the 5 Turbo, “three cars that people remember”, says Vidal, but the way in which he and his team have reinterpreted every single detail expresses a modernity and an aesthetic taste capable of captivating even the youngest audience who have no personal memories of the historic R5s.
We drove a Renault 5 E-Tech Electric Pop Yellow (together with Pop Green one of the colors directly inspired by the Seventies, but with a glitter effect that can only be discovered up close, while from a distance they look like pastel paints) and it is a catalyst of attention: many turn to look at it, at stops passers-by approach to take pictures with the car. The ride is very pleasant, the small R5 is easy to handle, precise in its trajectory and ready to overtake, with four driving modes that can be selected from the MultiSense button – Comfort, Sport, Eco and Lost – which in turn can be further modulated with different settings. Also remarkable is the range offered by the 52 kWh lithium-ion battery with NMC (Nickel Manganese Cobalt) chemistry combined with the 110 kW / 150 hp motor: up to 410 km WLTP.
But what makes you fall in love even before having ridden it are the many style details and the list is really long, to which we could add the wide range of dedicated accessories to customize the R5. To stay on the theme of the car’s magic number, we mention five, evocative references reinterpreted in current elements we observed on the Iconic Cinq trim: the 5-shaped light charge indicator on the bonnet, where there was once the asymmetrical ventilation grille; the headlights, all full LED (the front ones include the French flag and when the driver approaches, a “pupil” winks in a luminous greeting sequence, “it was important to give the car a soul, to make it communicate with people,” says Vidal); the rectangular “box” of the digital dashboard, in Seventies style like the pop graphics designed specifically for the instrumentation; the two-level dashboard in front of the passenger upholstered in a leather-like material with vertical stitching in yellow, a colour taken from the very pleasant 100% recycled fabric that covers the seats and front door panels. And finally, a divertissement: the gear selector lever on the steering wheel that takes the appearance of a lipsticks of the luxury French perfumery brands.
Design story in Auto&Design no. 266
