The formula for joy: R5
Article by James Herne
June 27, 1974. Two light blue Renault 5 prototypes drive into the courtyard of the French presidential residence. These cars are different. These cars are electric.
From the first car steps out André Jarrot, a former motorcycle racer and a record holder, now the Minister of Quality of Life. Yes, ministre de la qualité de la vie! Getting out of the car, the minister said: “Je suis un homme heureux!” (“I’m a happy man!”). This was in 1974.
In 1976, the Renault 5 Alpine (A5) was released. Together with the Volkswagen Golf GTI they were the first “hot hatches”. In 1978, an American company Electricar started to build electric Renault 5 cars in small quantities. In 1980, the Renault 5 Turbo went into production. That’s a proper heritage to build on.
A beautiful thing takes a long time to make. Counting from the first prototype, it took fifty years to get the electric R5 into mass-production. I got to drive one. And, like the French minister, now I’m a happy man!
It is actually a luck that the new Renault 5 went into production. Designers François Leboine and Nicolas Jardin started the design project around 2018, but there was no interest in the created mock-up and the project was left gathering dust. In 2020, the Renault Group got a new CEO, Luca de Meo. Rumor has it that he saw the R5 project on his first day on the job and immediately told to blow off the dust and show the public what they had. After winning the Concept Car of the Year award in 2021, it was officially announced that the new R5 would go into production. Usually, the design of a vehicle is adapted to the platform on which it is to be built. The design of the new R5 was perfect and for it a new platform was created. When the Renault 5 E-Tech went into production it immediately won the European Car of the Year title. The jury consisted of 60 automotive journalists.
When you get into the R5 E-Tech, you are greeted with an epic welcome music composed by electronic music creator Jean-Michel Jarre.
JMJ’s sound clip is very good, it is just a pity that it only lasts 6 seconds. The feature is both a plus and a minus at the same time. The plus is the first six seconds and after that you feel that you have been deprived of something good.
I like the materials used in this car. For example, take the fabric on the front door panel – it’s nice to touch it! It’s a small thing, but you can tell that the car manufacturer has made an effort.
The Renault 5 sales brochure says: “interior contains no leather” (“no” is written in bold). I like animals, so, for me this is good news.
The new R5 has seats that are reminiscent of the iconic Renault 5 Turbo seats. Moreover, seats with such a design are included in the price of the base version! I almost cannot believe it. I checked from the car configurator – it is true!
Speaking of the downsides, the image quality of the parking camera is poor. It is retro.
My test car has a 110 kW motor:
Let’s go for a drive!
According to the factory, the 110 kW version accelerates from zero to 100 km/h in 8 seconds. For me it was difficult to achieve the promised acceleration, but I finally managed to do 60 mph in 7.56 seconds and 100 km/h in 8.04 seconds, which rounds to 8.0 seconds.
In my opinion, more important than the 0-60 mph or 0-100 km/h acceleration is the 0-30 mph or 0-50 km/h sprint. It can be applied every day all day long. I measured the 0-30 mph acceleration time: 2.96 seconds, and 0-50 km/h: 3.06 seconds. This is probably the slowest electric car I’ve driven. However, an electric car that looks cool and doesn’t take more than 3 seconds to reach 30 mph or 50 km/h gets 800EV’s approval!
You might be wondering if 110 kW is enough power, but the motor delivers 180 lb-ft / 245 Nm of torque instantly. That is a lot for a front-wheel drive car. It causes torque-steer, which means you have to hold the steering wheel tightly during maximum acceleration. A front-wheel drive car is not ideal for transferring that much of torque onto the ground. However, I would like to have more power, even if I have to hold the steering wheel more stronger. Luckily, there is a sports version of the Renault 5 called the Alpine A290.
So, I’m driving and I take a look in the rear-view mirror – the picture is blurry! What is happening? Then I realize that the Harman Kardon subwoofer is doing its job! A hot hatch must have a good sound system. This is cool!
Now, to the main question: is this a driver’s car? Don’t the batteries make the car heavy? Look, the Renault 5 is one of the lightest electric cars. This four-door hot hatch is lighter than the two-door two-seater Porsche 911 GT3 of the same year. The R5 with a 52 kWh battery weighs exactly as little as the 911 GT3 RS of the same year, and the R5 with a 40 kWh battery is 100 kg / 220 lb lighter than the RS. Thanks to the batteries inside the floor, the electric car has a low center of gravity and this reduces body roll in fast corners. By the way, the R5 has a multi-link rear suspension, which is typical of sports and premium cars. So, yes, of course, the electric R5 is a driver’s car!
This car is pretty close to perfect, and when that’s the case, I would like everything to be great. This cannot be said about the charging power. Electric vehicle tester Bjørn Nyland, formerly known as “TeslaBjørn”, tested the same car (52 kWh battery, 110 kW motor). Cruising at 120 km/h (75 mph), he managed to cover 1000 km (621 miles) together with charging stops in 10 hours and 55 minutes (the test was carried out in ideal conditions).
The Renault 5 was launched at a particularly good price and it could easily be more expensive if the charging power was not limited to 100 kW. Luckily, the R5 consumes little power and therefore travels quite far.
For Europeans, it is important that the Renault 5 is made in EU (France). Many European and American car brands have their cars manufactured in China. There are no quality problems with cars made in China, it is a personal geopolitical preference which country to support.
Speaking about the quality of the Renault 5 in general – the quality of the design and the quality of the materials – I really like everything I see. The yellow color is amazing.
By the way, the paint is not a regular paint or a regular metallic paint. It is a special color with some kind of sparkling material mixed in. It is visible only up close and in the sunshine. When you see this color, you think “Lamborghini…”
In my opinion, the retro-futuristic design of the Renault 5 is 5 out of 5. When I look at this car, I think “Everything is so right!” In my opinion, the face of the electric R5 looks so good that it cannot be improved. Not even by Alpine.
The electric R5 brightens up the day! This car is so lovable. You feel happier looking at its face or being inside it. It is obvious that Renault has made a lot of effort to make this car good.
We spend a large enough part of our life in the car, which is why I think cars should be enjoyable. The R5 is one of those few beautiful cars that brings joy.
Let’s take a look at the equipment of the R5.
Automatic door locking is standard. I would like to clarify that you don’t need to press any buttons, you don’t need to touch the door handle, you just walk away and the doors lock automatically. It’s included in the base version. Superb!
You can turn on the cooling or heating of the car’s interior via the app. An added benefit with an electric car is that you can have it “running standstill” without creating CO2.
One of the most important basic things – the navigation, is solved well. Renault didn’t start reinventing a wheel, they simply implemented Google Maps and it is great. It is so good. It even calculates what the battery level will be when you arrive at your destination. I personally don’t really care about it considering the chargers are everywhere, but it is interesting to see this information.
I took a long trip with the R5 and later received an email from a charging company asking for an assessment of their service. I wrote: “On that trip, I charged at five locations. I had no problems with any of the companies. I can’t point out anything. The charging network and the charging service is mature. Thank you!”
Continuing on the topic of equipment, there was a V2L (Vehicle to Load) adapter in the trunk. With this it is possible to power standard electrical devices from car’s charging socket.
The V2L adapter can provide 3.7 kW of power (for comparison, a vacuum cleaner needs 1.5 kW and a laptop charger needs 0.1 kW). The car also has V2G (Vehicle-to-Grid) capability, which theoretically allows you to sell the electricity charged during low-cost hours back to the power grid during high-cost hours. I don’t think that such an activity is good for the battery, but such a capability shows that this is a technologically advanced car.
The car’s software has a talking character named “Reno”. He himself is not very smart, but when connected to ChatGPT, he replies “According to ChatGPT…” These days every car should have an AI assistant connected to the internet. Douze points pour la France !
Overview of the equipment packages:
“Evolution” (standard) equipment: heat pump, Plug & Charge readiness, sporty seats, automatic climate control, Android Auto, Apple CarPlay, updates over the internet, V2L compatibility, keyless entry, cruise control, traffic sign recognition, and more.
“Techno” equipment: includes “Evolution” equipment + Google Maps EV route planning, voice controlled Google Assistant, voice controlled Reno assistant that can be connected to ChatGPT, wi-fi hotspot, wireless charger for smartphone, Harman Kardon sound system with 9 speakers incl. subwoofer, adaptive cruise control, rain sensor, reversing camera, heated and electrically folding door mirrors, automatic day/night interior rear-view mirror, interior night lighting (48 colors to choose from), tinted rear windows, illuminated ‘5’ on the bonnet, battery preconditioning for fastest charging, and more.
“Iconic 5” equipment: includes “Evolution” and “Techno” equipment + driver seat lumbar support (electrically adjustable), yellow interior fabric, heated front seats, heated steering wheel, illuminated ‘Renault 5’ logo on the dashboard, frameless rear view mirror, blind spot warning, safe exit (warning alert), and more.
If a car is special or not, I think it can be told by whether the driver looks back at the car after parking and walking away from the car. When I walk away from a parked R5, I look back.
Renault offers the following electric vehicles: Renault 5, Renault 4, Megane, Scenic, Kangoo, Trafic, Master