"Renaulution" 3: With the electric R5, an icon could return

One never quite understood why Renault never continued to develop its design icons: The Renault 4 remained entirely without a successor, and with the iconic R5, they pulled the plug after two generations in favor of the much more generic Clio. The original Twingo was also replaced without necessity by more faceless successors. Additionally, the newly revived Alpine was once again on the brink. Thankfully, Luca de Meo is enough of a "car guy" to counter this trend: He kickstarted his "Renaultlution" with a potential R5 electric vehicle and a cool, reduced new logo.

There hasn’t been this much life in the Renault brand in a long time, which is aiming to become the leading provider of electrified cars in Europe – thereby making a veiled challenge to his former employer Volkswagen, where he managed to make Seat profitable and well-established.

To underscore this realignment, the new CEO presented a prototype for a new, fully electric R5 during a ninety-minute, online broadcasted press conference on January 14, 2020. The rebirth of the small car legend is intended to mark the start of the brand’s new strategy, which has been dubbed "Nouvelle Vague" – the “new wave” – in reference to the French film school of the 50s and 60s.

De Meo says:

“The R5 is strongly connected to Renault's history, but at the same time stands for the future of the brand and will make electric cars popular."

Renault has not yet provided details on the specifications and market launch of the model.

What does this mean?

In contrast to many other manufacturers, Renault has never maintained or further developed its icons. It is now up to de Meo to finally recognize these treasures of history and use them to shape a character brand. The names Alpine, R4, R5, R16, Twingo, and Espace offer plenty of potential. Especially since the brand has never lacked the wildest ideas for vehicle studies in its history.