We Test-Drive the Prototype Renault 5 EV
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Apr 2023
One of the most exciting cars of the past few years hasn't had huge turbos, neck-straining acceleration figures, or a cabin strewn with simulated stars. It's a small French hatchback that harks back to a car from the 1970s.
Renault's upcoming 5 EV was first conceptualized in 2021, and the company's CEO, Luca de Meo, loved it so much he decided that Renault would build a production model by 2024.
For those not familiar with Renault, or the original Renault 5, the story is pretty simple. Renault has specialized in affordable, smartly designed, fun-to-drive cars largely for the French market (it's a French company after all). In the 20th century, it had a string of popular cars that got the masses motoring: the agricultural Renault 4, the chic Clio, the family-sized Megane, the Espace (which basically invented the "people carrier" segment), and, of course, the Renault 5.
The dinky 5 came with engines to suit all budgets--the R5 Turbo was a rather spicy proposition--and ensured easy, spacious travel in a small package. It's a car that's undoubtedly been romanticized over the years, so the prospect of a new electric version caused tongues to wag and hopes to rise.
The production car is due to appear in the second half of 2024, but Renault was feeling confident enough to let WIRED behind the wheel of an early prototype, and the company hosted a few media outlets, including WIRED, in Sweden for a look. Sadly, the prototype we're driving on the ice doesn't appear to look remotely like the concept that wowed crowds three years ago. Instead, for now at least, it's got the body of Renault's staple hatch, the Clio. We're assured, however, that the final design will resemble the 2021 concept.
But there are already plenty of new features to gawk at. Under the door line is a big slab of metal, which is the new, lower platform. Nestled in the nose is a flap that hides its charge port. The rear wheel sits forward in the arch, highlighting the 5's shorter wheelbase. The 5 also has a wider track (both front and rear) than the Clio, so plastic wheel arch extensions have been bolted to the side. The interior is a mass of big red buttons to stop the car's various functions in an emergency.
The new modular CMF-B EV platform has been developed in-house at Renault specifically for small EVs and will debut on the new 5. Engineers can adjust wheelbase, track, and more to suit the project they're working on. The coming Renault 4 EV SUV will be based on it, for example. It'll also be made available to the firm's sibling brands, Alpine and Dacia, and to Nissan, with which Renault has an alliance, so we can expect to see it in multiple incarnations in the coming years.
The new platform is strong, Renault says, with room for large clusters of battery cells. How many cells, how far the car will go, and how efficient it will be is still a secret. Giles Godinot, platform leader for CMF-B EV, says: "It's very difficult to say now because homologation will be in nearly a year. Things can change. We have a target, but we don't know exactly where we'll be. If we say something today, [the final range] could be disappointing, it could be more."
That said, Godinot lets slip that it may come with two battery sizes and ranges: "There will be, for people in general, maybe two different versions of the R5. For some it could be a second car in a household, for others perhaps an only car. So we think in this category we'll have two use cases."
CMF-B EV has a neat trick up its sleeve: It's around 30 percent cheaper to produce than Renault's current small EV platform, the one that underpins the company's bread-and-butter EV, the Zoe, a car that's been around for more than a decade. Why has it been running so long? Well, Renault's excuse is that the car has been regularly updated. "Zoe came out in 2012," says Godinot, "but there have been many changes to Zoe. We started with a 200-km range, and now we're at 400 km. So that's a big change. Two years ago we launched phase two, which involved a huge technical change. The braking and steering systems were changed. Zoe is up-to-date. We don't need to make any big progress soon because it's competitive in the sector." There is something to this. The Honda e has poor range. The Mini Electric has charisma but is now much more expensive than it was at launch.
The Zoe, alongside the Nissan Leaf, was at the forefront of small, affordable electric motoring. While the likes of Tesla made EVs an aspirational purchase, legacy carmakers had more approachable options. The Zoe's time is up though, and the Renault 5 will take its place. But while de Meo's orders to make the 5 a reality as quickly as possible certainly shortened the Zoe's lifespan, Godinot claims that a replacement was being investigated a couple of years before the 5 EV concept's 2021 debut.
On a frozen lake in northern Sweden, the not-quite-a-Clio looks slightly awkward--a bit like a child wearing their dad's suit jacket. Something is slightly off. Renault has offered up a current Zoe as a yardstick to compare steering, braking, and traction, as well as two electric 5s in varying states of development.
In a series of tests involving high-speed lane changes, a slalom, and a set of challenging turns, the Zoe was just as it always has been: comfy, quick(ish), but with a ride on the softer side. Its steering works, but it's not hugely engaging, and that isn't what Renault is after with the 5.
"Things that are emotional, or agile, aren't opposite to safety and quietness," says Godinot. "You can make a quick car that's difficult to drive. That's easy. But we want to make an agile car that's easy to operate, that inspires confidence." Even at this early stage, Godinot isn't kidding about it being more engaging. The prototype's steering is far more direct, reacting quickly to small inputs and giving positive feedback. ... well, as much as you can get with snow tires over ice. Going around tricky turns at speed, the rear of the car moves and is caught by its various traction systems. At the moment, Renault is letting its development car play but not go so far as to spin.
At this early stage, the 5 has a little trouble putting its power down on the snow. Its wheels fire out more grunt than the traction tech can deal with as you move off, but once you're up to speed, it settles. Prototypes are there to tune the tech, of course, and the more advanced of the two prototypes unsurprisingly handles the job better.
The new Renault 5 will use a brake-by-wire system developed in conjunction with Continental. To demonstrate the new setup, Renault sends the car down a high/low grip surface. After building up some serious speed, we're asked to brake as hard as possible with high-grip tarmac on the left side and sheet ice on the right. Under such unusual conditions, the car shuffles power across its front-driven wheels while applying the brakes as efficiently as possible to eliminate the chance of sliding. The rear of the car becomes skittish during the rapid deceleration, but corrective inputs to the steering keep things straight.
Given the early nature of the cars, there is no way to know how things are faring in the cabin--the instrument cluster is there for speed only. Godinot is not forthcoming either, as that aspect of the 5 is still being worked on. This early flirtation with the future of Renault's EV offering is to show its prowess on snow, not to share data. "It's just too soon. We don't want to raise expectations, so for now it's a secret," he says.
With the deadline for the end of internal combustion approaching, EVs are naturally gaining popularity. And as more people decide to make the switch, the choice of available cars, and the competition, grows. Renault is banking on existing fans of the 2021 concept; the halo effect of the model's past glories; and people of a certain age remembering, misty-eyed, the good times they had in the original. After the ice, Renault has moved on to endurance testing to get the 5 ready for de Meo's 2024 unveil deadline, and with it the hope of bringing back some much-needed cool. The car's nowhere near ready, but the prototype bodes well for the return of this iconic hatchback supermini, this time in an electric incarnation.
