New Renault 4 teased ahead of Paris Motor Show debut on October 14
Renault’s so-called ‘Renaulution’ is set to continue at this month’s Paris Motor Show, with the reveal of a new Renault 4.
The new Renault 4 is set to be fully unveiled on October 14. The company has released an early set of teaser pictures of the all-new all-electric model revealing its retro design details.
We first saw the Renault 4 in concept when the company presented the off-road Renault 4Ever concept car at the Paris Motor Show in 2022. Now the 4x4 cladding has been stripped off and the production car – set to go on sale next year – is about to be revealed to the world.
The ten teaser pictures show the grille, a fabric roll-back roof, the rear lights, a side panel, the rear three-quarter window, the rear spoiler, the upright rear hatch, the bumper overriders , protective ridges along the sides of the car and the 4 logo.
Many of these design features hark back to the original Renault 4 from 1961, a groundbreaking small family car that boasted plenty of space inside a compact body with innovative features like a flat floor for extra foot room. Over eight million original Renault 4s were sold in more than 100 countries around the world.
The new Renault 4 teaser images
The pictures show how much of the inspiration for the new car has come from the old model. For example, the grille is a modern interpretation of the original car’s face, with an illuminated Renault diamond on a gloss black plastic panel that also features a thin illuminated strip around the edge. There’s a slight glimpse of the circular headlights, too.
As with the original car, a roll-back fabric roof is pictured too, although it’s likely to be electric-powered in the new Renault 4. It sits in a contrasting black roof, highlighted in the pictures with a prominent rear roof spoiler that sits on top of an upright hatchback with a low-loading sill.
Similarly, the taillights are reminiscent of the original Renault 4’s pill-shaped rear lights, brought up to date with LED lighting technology. The picture of the rear three quarter panel shows a trapezoidal quarter window that’s positioned directly above the rear wheel, as it was on the original car.
On the lower edges of the doors, three sculpted ridges run along the sides as a nod to the plastic shielding on later versions of the original Renault 4, while a graphic panel stretches from the base of the windscreen towards the front wheel arch, hinting at the original 4’s front fenders.
Finally, although the bumpers are distinctly modern rather than the chrome-plated ones on the original, there are vertical overriders to add a bit of retro fun.
The new Renault 4 will follow the new all-electric Renault 5, which goes on sale soon in the UK. Although slightly longer than the 5 at 4.14m (versus 3.92m) it uses much of the same technology under the skin from Renault’s ‘AmpR Small’ platform.
We expect two batteries to be offered in the Renault 4 with 40kWh and 52kWh capacities, as seen in the Renault 5. In the 5 they offer maximum claimed ranges of 186 and 248 miles respectively. And like the Renault 5, expect the 4 to be more modern inside, possibly with similar twin 10-inch screens using Renault’s latest built-in infotainment system with Google, voice control and a range of apps and connected services.
Renault will be making an R4 R Pass available for potential Renault 4 owners, as it has done with the Renault 5. In the case of the Renault 5, the pass offers a fast-track ordering process to get to the front of the queue, as well as a miniature model of their new car.