The return of a legend. Contoured, photogenic, ready to attract light and flashes. The prototype of the electric R5 shines out of sight. The calm before the storm. 10 a.m., that’s it: here is the newcomer, unveiled this Monday morning at the Geneva motor show in Switzerland. A pure electric, like we would talk about a thoroughbred. That is to say developed as such, from a clean sheet and a platform dedicated to battery cars. Far, very far, from the simple adaptation of an existing thermal model.
“The R5 uses for the first time AmpR Small, a lightweight platform with a low center of gravity, which offers a lot of agility and driving pleasure,” explains Aurélien Subsol, expert from Ampere, the Renault subsidiary dedicated to electric cars.
“The return of the R5 was announced in January 2021, three years ago,” recalls Fabrice Cambolive, the boss of the Renault brand. His business, then, was at stake for its survival, nothing more, nothing less. “At that time we needed a North Star,” he agrees.
The newcomer’s mission? Enter the electric vehicle market, which represents between 15 and 20 points of the French automobile market – but which gains 5 points each year – to create a wind of madness on Renault sales.
Its advantages ? The history it has carried in its wake since the release of the first model in 1972, the memories it stirs, its love in the collective imagination. “The R5 had a look, pep, but while remaining an affordable car,” says Gilles Vidal, design director of the Renault brand. People haven’t forgotten the R5, the Super 5, then the R5 Turbo. »
Its descendant, today, is an electric one. No more need for an engine ventilation grille on the hood, therefore. It has nevertheless been kept for the wink, displaying the number five, the five bars of which represent 20% battery slices. At a glance, you know (roughly) how much energy you have left.
Two types of battery
The new R5 has retained the rounded lines and iconic taillights of the iconic model from the 1970s and 1980s. “Making there be an emotion beyond the function is part of our job,” says Gilles Vidal, clearly satisfied with the work accomplished. Two pop colors, green and yellow, as well as a calmer blue, will be offered, as well as the more traditional colors, white, gray, black.
The staging was made to “project the car into the future”, insist all the representatives of the brand, keen to avoid the trial of nostalgic or vintage. Luca de Meo, the big boss of Renault Group, it must be said, had resurrected, elsewhere and before, the Fiat 500. A resounding success, but don’t go saying in Boulogne-Billancourt, at Renault headquarters, that the Italian applies the same recipes…
The new R5 arrives with a price tag that is still unclear, “around 25,000 euros”, the starting price. The brackets will be wide depending on the versions, we warn, 95, 120 and 150 horsepower, and depending on the batteries, since motorists will be able to opt for the 40 kWh battery (urban range) or its big sister of 52 kWh (comfort rangeup to 400 km of autonomy).
“Half of our customers drive 50 km/day maximum,” observes Fabrice Cambolive, Renault’s general manager. But people prefer a battery larger than their needs to be reassured. We have a lot of educational work to do. »
The precise prices will be communicated in May, when orders are opened. The first deliveries will take place in the second half of 2024.
A car connected to ChatGPT
Even the unions are impatient. “The electric R5 will be assembled in Douai, where there will be perhaps three teams on the production lines! Renault hasn’t experienced this for years, enthuses Lionel Langlais, the CFDT deputy group union representative, the second largest organization at group level.
Fabrice Cambolive cannot resist the pleasure of looking in the rearview mirror. “The R5 has been avant-garde from the start,” he insists. In 1972, when it was released, it brought the concept of a second car to the family. She crossed all social classes, in France and in Europe. We wanted to stay as close as possible to the initial car.”
The first vehicle on the Old Continent to drop below 5 liters per 100 km, the R5 had resisted the oil shocks of 1973 and 1979 better than its competitors. The new electric R5, today, mocks soaring prices in the same way fuel at the pump.
Technology lovers will not be disappointed, and those who are worried, will be taken by the hand by Reno, a clever co-pilot from the brain of Luc Julia, the “daddy” of Siri, Apple’s voice assistant. The car will be connected to artificial intelligence via Chat GPT, like its distant cousins at DS Automobiles. A ghost, but for a real jump into the future.