New Renault 4 is no longer a cheap, simple no frills runabout – it’s now a funky family crossover & a capital B bargain

THE original Renault 4 was a tin snail. 

Small and slow with a big boot. 

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The only thing it was designed to beat was a Citroen 2CV. 

Talk about setting the bar low. 

But boy did it hit the spot. 

Renault sold eight million over 30 years and even today it still ranks as the eighth best-selling car of all time. 

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Now the R4 has been reimagined for the electric age as a funky family crossover with a Google brain, squishy seats and a canvas roll-back roof. 

Lifestyle, innit. 

So it’s no longer the cheap, simple, no-frills runabout it once was. 

It’s actually bigger and more expensive than a Renault 5. 

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Yep, 4 is bigger than 5 at Planet Renault. Funny. I don’t recall Manfred Mann singing, “4-5-3-2-1”. 

Yet it is still a capital-B bargain at £27k, undercutting battery-powered rivals from Mini, Fiat, Ford and Vauxhall by several bags. 

Put an R4 through an X-ray machine and you’ll see it has the same bones as an R5. Good start. 

The R5 is the 2025 European Car of the Year. It drives like an R5. Feels like an R5. Goes as far as an R5. The difference being that R4 is a bit longer and taller and has a bigger boot. So it’s more practical. Better for dogs. 

It also has a low, flat loading sill like the Sixties original. As much as 10cm lower than the competition. Which tells me there’s an R4 van coming soon. 

We’re not getting that flip-down front passenger seat on UK cars right now. Which needs sorting. 

It would be mint for carrying long things like ladders or surfboards or chauffeuring Peter Crouch in the back. He’d have somewhere to stick his legs. 

This next bit is a little nerdy but braking regeneration is another area where the R4 trumps the R5. 

It has four modes controlled by flappy paddles on the steering wheel. So you can mimic changing down gears for a bend, and force-feed the battery with electrons. 

The R5 and its racy twin, the Alpine A290, don’t have flappy paddles. Explain that one. The practical less sporty car gets the fun stuff. 

Also, there’s a four-wheel-drive R4 in the pipeline for people who might actually do “lifestyle-y” things with it at the weekend. 

As for range, the 52kWh battery will do up to 247 miles and recharges to 80 per cent in a 30-minute tea-and-pee break. 

R4 isn’t taking the smaller 40kWh battery available in the R5. 

As for looks, yes, it’s another crossover. But it does have some cool references to the original R4, if you know your French onions. 

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Like the one-piece front grille. This time with an illuminated ring around it. Not chrome. 

Like the upright three-part rear lights. This time as LEDs. 

Like the roof rack. Not just for show. It can actually carry 80kg of stuff. 

Renault has successfully rebooted R4 and R5 as cool, cost-friendly EVs. 

What’s next? 

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