Renault continues to tap its past to promote its future, teasing a concept version of the revived Renault 4 ahead of its Paris motor show debut on October 17.
The company published two shadowed images overnight, of the front and side-profile, showing an over-the-top show car silhouette with a distinctly high-riding SUV stance.
Renault calls the concept “a modern twist to an iconic model that left its mark on the 1960s, ‘70s, and ‘80s.”
We already knew about the French company’s plan to bring back the famous Renault 4 as an electric car for the modern age, with a reported launch of 2025 in mind. The company calls it a “reinterpretation”.
Renault 4 concept
This retro-inspired EV will be a companion model to the soon-to-be-reborn Renault 5 EV, which itself premiered in show car guise in January 2021.
Reports have suggested the road-going Renault 4 EV will go into production in 2025, about one year after the Renault 5’s slated 2024 debut.
A leaked patent filing, originally shared by Dutch site Autovisie in May 2021, showed that the car would retain a small, upright body like the original Renault 4.
Patent filing
Not much else is known about the revived Renault 4 EV at this stage, but it’s expected to share the 5’s CMF-B EV platform.
It will be one of around 10 Renault Group EVs designed to be launched by 2025: Including the Megane E-Tech, reborn Renault 5, new Scenic crossover, and several models for Alpine.
While the roadgoing Renault 4 remains a few years off, it’s understood to be on the cards for Australia.
“Any new product that’s announced from the EV side, we have our hands up for,” Renault Australia general manager Glen Sealey told us in May this year.
1961 Renault 4 
Renault 5 EV concept
The original Renault 4 had been introduced in 1961 as a response to the Citroen 2CV, which had targeted lower-income French consumers in rural areas. More than eight million 4s were built over its lengthy run.
The 2CV’s popularity as an urban runabout inspired Renault to introduce the 4 (and its smaller-engined 3 sibling) as a more comfortable and practical rival to the Citroen.
Much as the 2CV outlived subsequent Citroen city cars and survived until 1990, the Renault 4 continued to be manufactured in France until 1992 and until 1994 in Slovenia and Morocco.
