CINQ OR SWIM?

The reborn Renault 5 concept promised much - does the full production version live up to the hype? Say bonjour to the EV supermini with proper Gallic flair

- JACK RIX

“IT’S THE BEGINNING OF RENAULT LIGHTING THE RETRO EV AFTERBURNERS”

If I were Gilles Vidal, Renault’s design boss who spent the past three years sculpting the new electric 5 into a block of pugnacious retro perfection, I’d be rightly annoyed that a wicker basket is getting more attention than the car itself. We’re in a trendy industrial unit turned events space on the outskirts of Paris, and the world’s media have just clapped eyes on the new 5 for the first time. Unfortunately, they’ve also just learned about the single greatest optional extra ever: a porte baguette to hold your favourite tubular loaf and stop it shedding crumbs all over your car. It’s a masterstroke in sucking the seriousness out of a new car launch and simultaneously confirming that the new 5 is as French as Édith Piaf smoking Gauloises in a bathtub full of unnecessarily smelly cheese.

“That was [Renault CEO] Luca de Meo’s idea,” says Gilles. “It’s funny, we often think he could be a designer. We thought about putting a beret on the headrests, but that was a bit much.” Perhaps de Meo does have the bones of a designer because it was him, after assuming his role in 2020, who spotted a full-size model (see panel over the page) lurking in the corner of the design studio and said, “I want that one.”