Renault 4 is reinvented for the electric age

PARIS -- The Renault 4, a full-electric interpretation of the original iconic model, will debut at the Paris auto show on Oct. 17. 

Renault released images of the car’s silhouette and front end on Tuesday.

The Renault 4 is expected to be a small crossover or SUV. It will go into production by 2025 as a companion model to the retro-themed Renault 5 small electric hatchback.

The brand did not release any more details. 

Produced from the early 1960s to the early 1990s, the Renault 4 was a front-wheel-drive, five-door hatchback with plenty of ground clearance for rural roads. More than eight million were eventually sold.

The coming version will be one of 10 full electric Renault Group models to be launched by 2025.  Among them are the compact Megane E-Tech launched earlier this year; the Renault 5, expected to start production in France by early 2024; a compact SUV expected to be called Scenic; a midsize SUV; and two models for sports-car brand Alpine, a small “hot hatch” and larger SUV.

The Renault 4, Renault 5 and the Alpine small car will be built on a new – but not all-new – electric-only platform called CMF-BEV. The architecture has a new center section to accommodate a flat battery pack, but 50 percent of its components come from the existing Renault-Nissan CMF-B platform, Renault has said.

Renault and alliance partner Nissan will share the CMF-BEV platform for small cars and the CMF-EV platform for compact and midsize cars.

By 2030, every new Renault model launched for Europe should be electric-only, CEO Luca de Meo has said.