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Pros: Looks great, roomier than R5, efficient, should be well-priced, good to drive
Cons: Still a little small in the back, range could be better
Renault 4 E-Tech Design
For a car going on sale in 2025, the Renault 4 E-Tech was designed a long time ago: 1961 to be precise. Well, not quite, but as with the gorgeous Renault 5 E-Tech electric hatchback, the 4 E-Tech leans heavily into the styling of its illustrious ancestor — the original Renault 4 found more than eight-million owners over its 31 years of production, and became not only the best-selling Renault ever, but the fourth-best-selling car of all time.
It’s not as immediately eye-catching as the gorgeous Renault 5, but the R4 has a slower-burning character. You just keep finding more and more neat details which manage to look both modern and yet still hark back to the classic original. The oblong grille at the front is a case in point — yes, it looks very similar to that of the versions from the seventies, but the original chrome trim has been replaced by a loop of LED light while the old round incandescent bulb lights have been replaced by LEDs too.
There are other retro touches — the corrugations down the bottoms of the doors, the three-section lozenge shaped brake lights, the small extra window in the rear pillar — all of which refer to the original, but none of which make the new Renault 4 look old. It just looks cool, a sensation amplified by some pleasant pastel paint options that hark back to the sixties. Is it an SUV or a hatchback, though? It’s the same height, overall, as a Captur, and actually has more ground clearance underneath, but to us, this new Renault 4, as with the original, looks and feels more hatchback than 4x4.
Renault 4 E-Tech Interior
Thanks to sharing its batteries, motors and chassis with the 5 E-Tech, the Renault 4 E-Tech also shares a lot of its cabin with the R5. That’s no bad thing, as the R5’s cabin is pretty much as cool as its exterior, and the same is true here. The digital instruments are neat, and the standard ten-inch touchscreen is impressive, with Google-based software that’s easy to find your way around (helped by the fact that Renault — bravo! — still insists on fitting physical buttons for climate control and heating functions). The cabin is a little less retro than the exterior, but there are still some nice touches, such as the quilted material on the passenger-side dashboard, and the personalised looks for the column-mounted gear selector.
Space and comfort in the front are very good, thanks to excellent seats, and the R4 pulls out a crucial advantage over the cuter R5 because adults can fit into the back seats. It’s not spectacularly roomy — legroom is OK, foot space is a bit tight, and the roof feels low if you’re tall — but it’s a practical four-seater in a way that the R5, being shorter in the wheelbase by 80mm, just can’t manage.
The R4’s boot is much more useful than that of the R5’s, too. Just as the original Renault 4 had a low loading lip, so too this new electric one has a low boot edge. That makes it easier to pack stuff into the 420 litres of space available (plus another 55 litres under the floor for charging cable storage) and it also makes for a handy seat if you fancy an alfresco cup of something warming and caffeinated. Fold down the seats and there’s a useful 1,405 litres to play with but Ireland misses out on the fold-flat front passenger seat, which allows those in left-hand-drive markets to carry items up to 2.2 metres long.
Renault 4 E-Tech Performance & Drive
There are two versions of the Renault 4 E-Tech. There’s an entry-level model featuring a 120hp electric motor driving the front wheels and powered by a 40kWh battery that gives it a range of up to 308km on the WLTP cycle. Most customers, though, are expected to trade up to the car we’re driving here, the Comfort Range model with a 52kWh battery, a 409km range and a 150hp electric motor.
That range is actually pretty achievable. On a long day’s driving on a varied route that took in motorway, city streets and country roads, we beat Renault’s official energy consumption figure of 15.1kWh/100km, averaging an impressive 14.9kWh/100km. Obviously, long runs on the motorway could reduce the range to as little as 220km, but in more mixed driving we’d suspect that around 360km should be easily achievable by most drivers. It helps that the R4 comes with a standard heat-pump system for warming and cooling the cabin.
Performance from the 150hp motor is brisk, thanks in no small part to the fact that the R4 has its weight under control. The 0-100km/h sprint takes a reasonable 8.3 seconds, and the R4 feels sufficiently brisk on the road. There’s a one-pedal system, which uses the electric motor to bring the car to a complete halt at low speeds, and the R4’s brake pedal feels firm and responsive.
If the R5 is a total riot to drive — and it is — then the R4 is a little less so, but still a very satisfying car. Light, fast steering and well-judged suspension (firm, but well-damped) mean that it’s easy to get into a pleasant rhythm on a country road, and it’s only big, transverse ridges that upset the ride quality. Certainly, the R4 is well ahead of most of its electric competition when it comes to driving pleasure.
Renault 4 E-Tech Pricing
Renault has said that the R4 E-Tech’s starting price will be ‘comfortably’ under the €30,000 mark. We reckon about €28,000 is a good guess for a basic version with the small battery and the 120hp motor. Most buyers will probably spend a bit extra to get the bigger battery and the better range.
Standard equipment will include 18-inch alloys, the ten-inch touchscreen, adaptive cruise control, climate control and the heat-pump heating system. The ultimate option, not available until late 2025, or early 2026, is the ‘Plein Sud’ sunroof, a full-length retracting canvas sunroof that almost turns the R4 into a convertible. It’s a must-have.
Carzone Verdict
Renault has been on something of a roll of late, introducing hugely impressive new cars such as the Renault 5 E-Tech, the Scenic E-Tech and the Rafale. This new Renault 4 E-Tech easily slots into the same group, with oh-so-cute styling, useful practicality, impressive efficiency and an enjoyable driving experience. The swinging sixties are back, and they’ve come with batteries included this time.