Renault is having more fun with the R4, keeping the 5 as a halo product (soon to burnished even further by the Turbo 3E) with a purity of form and presence. The 4, on the other hand, has already spawned a couple of concepts, the 2023 4EVER Trophy and the 2026 JP4x4 Concept, both playing into the car’s more upright, 4x4-focused stance. The former evokes the original R4’s rallying history, while the latter is a contemporary update of a beach buggy/surf wagon.

After a fortnight spent in Renault’s new 4 and 5, the conclusion is inescapable. Small EVs are not just here to stay but they’re the most useful and appropriate application of the entire technology. But what about space and range and performance, we hear you cry? Surely hefty-platformed SUVs with multiple rows of seats and capacious amounts of kWh are what’s needed to make the most of this ever-advancing technology?

Certainly in Europe, small cars have always hewed closest to the everyday use case of the vast majority of drivers. EU stats show that the average daily miles driven maxes out in Germany, with 19km per passenger, going down to just 5.6km in Greece. If a car is a necessity, then small, efficient, and attractive is the way to go.

What has changed is affordability and desirability. Car prices have steadily risen this century, with smaller cars becoming disproportionately more expensive as manufacturers eschew bare bones simplicity in favour of high levels of equipment and better-quality materials. When EVs first arrived, the inevitable cost of batteries pushed up these prices even more, initially precluding small cars from benefitting from the technology. Renault’s first ‘compact’ EV, the Zoe, was offered with a battery that had to be leased to offset the initial purchase price.

This finance model hasn’t survived falling battery prices. Chinese firms led the way by leveraging the economies of scale to create a number of sub-£20k small EVs. It’s taken older European brands a little longer to find the resources to create competitors that – if they can’t quite beat the Far East on cost – offer a far more attractive route into electrification.

Partly this is down to heritage. Renault, Peugeot, Citroën and Fiat were at the vanguard of compact car design in the post-war era, shaping what we know consider to be icon after icon, even if at the time they were simply seen as unique, affordable and highly desirable small cars.

By bottling some of that nostalgia and fusing it with the next generation of EV platforms, these self-same companies have taken giant strides in re-shaping the modern EV market. The past few years have seen the electrified return of the Renaults 4, 5 and Twingo, Fiat’s 500, 600 and Panda, along with Peugeot’s reputation for hot hatchback magic and the upcoming revival of none other than the Citroën 2CV. Throw in the BMW Mini-E and a number of similarly attractive offerings like the Dacia Hipster concept and Hyundai Inster, and what you have is an undeniable revival.

The modern definition of a small car certainly does not mean like for like. The electric 5 is shade shorter than 4m long (the 4 a little larger at 4.144m), a substantial increase on the 3.5m long original (for reference, the contemporary Topolino is just 2.5m long, versus the 3.2m length of the original Fiat 500). There’s more legroom in the 4, thanks to its longer wheelbase; the 5 is a little bit cramped for four adults.

Both Renaults feel compact and nimble, certainly when compared with the better-selling SUV sector. To drive, the 5 is much more spirited than the slightly softer 4, even if the near-identical cabins don’t do much to differentiate the feel of the dash. The info screens aren’t overwhelming, graphics are bright and dynamic without being frustrating, and sit’s simple to switch off nagging alerts. There are also physical switches for heating, ventilation and volume, although the angular gear selector stalk feels a little bit flimsy.

Neither car offers a revolution in the way of available range – both share the same 52 kwh battery (with a smaller 40kwh variant available in the R5), giving an official rated maximum of just over 250 miles. That’s not colossal but Renault’s tech manages the battery well, making the estimated range easy to exceed on a warm day with a light touch on the accelerator.

The 5’s verve makes it harder to resist pressing on, although more enthusiastic drivers can go for the mechanically and visually similar Alpine A290. There will also eventually be a supercar-beating 5 Turbo 3E, a limited production with a six-figure price tag.

Each model contains pleasing design touches that don’t ever tip over into kitsch – even the 3D printed vignettes in the centre console. The 5 has a raft of music-equalisation presets shaped by none other than synth wizard Jean-Michel Jarre, while the big ‘5’ logo on the bonnet doubles up as a charge indicator.

The little Renaults are already contemporary classics, plying a rare but rich seam of sales success and critical acclaim. We experienced the slightly more upmarket Roland Garros edition of the 5 (shades of the old Peugeot 205 Lacoste, perhaps), which adds tennis-chic design touches. It comes in Diamond Black as standard, with optional Arctic White, Midnight Blue or Matte Shadow Grey bodywork.

Renault has also announced the Plein Sud variant of the 4, with its roll-back canvas roof reminiscent of the original Renault 4, which in turn appropriated it from the Citroën 2CV. As previously mentioned, the 2CV is coming back, with a concept promised for October’s Paris Motor Show.

According to Citroën CEO, Xavier Chardon, ‘the new 2 CV will re-enchant electric mobility for a new generation through a highly desirable model… [it is] not simply the return of a legendary name. It is the return of a bold and optimistic idea of progress. A profoundly Citroën idea.’

Renault might be getting the attention right now, but the competition is hotting up. In the Stellantis corner you have the Fiat Grande Panda, soon to be joined by its bulked-up Fiat Grizzly sibling, all of which are sold alongside the closely related Jeep Avenger, Vauxhall Frontera and Citroën C3.

In addition to the 2CV, Citroën also originated the ultra-small Ami, the car that forms the basis of Fiat’s delightful Topolino. With news that Mini too is thinking again about the sub-3.6m sector, along with the imminent arrival of the new version of the Smart #2, the small car is most certainly back. This time let’s hope it’s for good.

Renault 5 Roland Garros+, from £26,945, Renault.co.uk

Renault 4, from £23,445, Renault.co.uk

We’re just a few days away from one of the most iconic luxury brands on the planet taking a bold step into the unknown. The full unveiling of the Ferrari Luce – only the interior control surfaces and seats have been revealed at time of writing – will truly set the cat amongst the pigeons as the progenitor of the luxury sports car sector ventures into pure electric propulsion for the very first time.

When even the unveiling of the Luce’s dashboard – usually not a subject to trigger controversy and provocation – spawned endless amounts of comment and opinion, it became clear that the combination of electrification and deviation from a pre-conceived norm could not fail to be anything but rage bait.

Wallpaper* can confidently predict the rage-bait churn will get another hearty stir – not because of any aesthetic shortcomings, but because sports cars have been sucked into the culture wars. We’re pretty sure that wasn’t Ferrari’s intention when it signed up LoveFrom and its car-mad directors, Sir Jony Ive and Marc Newson, to steward the aesthetic of Ferrari’s first EV, working closely with Maranello’s engineering team to create the ultimate expression of luxury electric mobility.

You might well ask why a car maker going electric is even remotely controversial in 2026. To answer that, one must strap in to experience a perfect storm of misplaced idealism, a layer of wishy-washy governance, a vociferous fandom who have become vocal gatekeepers, and the endless but near mythical search for the true soul of a machine.

Thirty years ago, the latter Grail Quest would have been considered fully done and dusted, with the glorious mechanical symphony that is the V12 engine placed upon a pedestal in the eternal temple and henceforth worshipped forevermore.

To the fury of the temple gatekeepers, that’s not what happened. The inconvenient truth of mobility’s fossil fuel addiction was no longer possible to ignore, except to the most steadfast denialists and exceptionalists. Unfortunately, it’s this contingent who rule the roost in the small but high-profile world of luxury sports automotive.

So what’s the true status of electrified performance? One of the side effects of electrification has been that hitherto unattainable levels of performance are now handed on a plate to drivers of ‘everyday’ machinery; in its most powerful form, the humble Volvo EX30 will hit 62mph in 3.6 seconds. That’s quicker than the limited production 1995 Ferrari F50, now comfortably commanding upwards of £3.5m.

In divorcing the thrill of out-and-out performance from the exclusivity of extortionate prices, the luxury performance market is having to push the boundaries of design, materiality and technology to retain its edge. The new inclusivity of electrification effectively divorces the emotive qualities of performance. And perhaps more than any other carmaker, Ferrari once considered itself the be-all and end-all of emotional machinery.

That’s why the Luce is not a two-seater, but a grand tourer, perhaps the last bastion of romance on four-wheels. But even this sanctified typology – with its evocation of great journeys, open roads and a life of leisure – hasn’t quite cracked the apparently tainted image of electric luxury.

Will the Luce change this? It’ll certainly help shift the dial. This year also sees the release of Jaguar’s new Type 01, the production iteration of the car revealed as the no-less controversial Type 00 Concept. The first all-electric Bentley is also on the way, previewed by the EXP 15 Concept last year, while Rolls-Royce has been quietly operating in this electric realm for several years, first with the Spectre and more recently with the coachbuilt Project Nightingale.

So are all these companies doubling down on an unchangeable course they might conceivably come to regret? That’s certainly the takeaway from the more performance-focused slice of the luxury market. Porsche, Maserati and Lotus have all performed screeching U-turns on their pure EV strategies.

Maserati scrapped a near-completed electric variant of the MC20 supercar, while Porsche has delayed its Boxster replacement, despite engineering a fully electric variant, in order to accommodate ICE power as well – not on the original spec sheet. Meanwhile, Lotus has just announced the Type 135, a hybridised V8 supercar that’s a world away from the electric-only Evija hypercar and Theory 1 concept, reversing plans to make the brand electric only.

Meanwhile, Lamborghini, McLaren and Aston Martin are blocking their ears and pretending their customers have a perfect right to carry on polluting and they have a perfect right to carry on allowing them to do so. The reason? There’s no demand for EVs amongst buyers who favour V8s and V12s, the pop of unburnt fuel crackling in the exhaust pipe and the roar of mechanical combustion.

Despite technical agreements (McLaren with Nio, Aston Martin with Lucid and Lamborghini as part of the VW Group), the fruits of these labours are still shrouded in their respective design studios, waiting for positive customer clinics and enthusiasm from dealers. The 2023 Lamborghini Lanzador concept now looks like a dead end.

Like so many manufacturing and technology sectors, the luxury car industry is in danger of being left behind by China. Right now, the only thing the country doesn’t have is the lustre and leverage of a heritage automotive brand. Otherwise, Chinese EVs are attaining new levels of luxury and performance. The extraordinary 300mph Yangwang U9 Xtreme (parented by BYD) is just a foretaste of what’s to come. The country’s fleet of luxury EV GTs is even stronger, from the Xpeng P7+ to the Zeekr 001 FR and Ferrari-aping Denza Z9 GT.

So is the customer always right, or can they be swayed by new brands without the accumulated centuries of heritage that still shapes our understanding and perception of cars? Companies might cry that ‘our customers don't want an EV!’ but the viability of ICE is increasingly running counter to social norms. No one would welcome fumes in a smoke-free space just because the smoker could afford a pricey cigar. So why would an expensive but outlandishly noisy exhaust be a socially acceptable thing to inflict on a city?

Perhaps it’s the beginning of the end for the traditional supercar and hypercar, their unfeasible abilities hamstrung by social norms and legal restrictions. Genuine enthusiasts know that power isn’t everything, let alone price, and that the best driving thrills don’t necessarily even need speed. A beautifully balanced small sports car will always triumph over a bloated, oversized performance machine.

There are signs that EVs are starting to head in this direction. Consider the return of the ‘hot hatchback’, once a mainstay of affordable ICE performance, now reborn for the electric era. There’s a veritable stable of smallish, sporty electric cars either here or on the way, from the Alpine A290 to the Hyundai Ioniq 5N, as well as the Vauxhall Corsa GSE, Peugeot e-208 GTi, Cupra Raval VZ, and the Volkswagen Polo GTI, even the supercar-baiting Renault 5 Turbo 3E. These run the gamut from affordable to outrageous, but all pack a dynamic punch that more than matches up to ICE equivalents. Zero emissions, more space, less sound and more reliability are all added bonuses.

Those with more patience might want to hold out for the Caterham Project V, due to be revealed in 2027 (when there might also be an electrified successor to the Audi TT to talk about), while fellow small manufacturer Morgan has also dabbled in electric concepts (including the riotous XP-1) and could still be a contender in this defiantly niche market.

The pressure on the traditional sports car is technological, cultural and economic, threatening to squeeze this once highly desirable form factor into obsolescence, afforded only by a tiny coterie of confused collectors unsure as to what they’re even signifying. As it stands, China has almost all the cards when comes to the premium electrified GT (despite Porsche and Audi’s valiant resistance). Will Ferrari’s top-tier competitors respond to the boldness of the Luce, or will they simply wait and see how it all pans out?

Lest we forget, the very first EV of the modern era, the Tesla Roadster, was a sports car (engineered by Lotus, no less). It was a simpler machine from a simpler age but still retains some charm. Nearly 20 years later, a true successor is nowhere to be found. Whoever can convincingly splice electrification with true driver engagement could still come up with a winner.

Could the MPV be making a comeback? After so many years spent under the SUV-led domination of roads around the world, the coming of new brands, new powertrains and new attitudes has subtly shifted the focus from vehicles that can putatively go anywhere to the more appealing multifunctional mobile space – the ‘multipurpose vehicle’.

A new model from Mercedes and a concept from Renault exemplify this shift. The new Mercedes-Benz VLE is the passenger version of the company’s light commercial van, drawing on last year’s Vision V Concept.

The latter was pretty much a neon-infused nightclub on wheels, exemplifying the iconic bling approach favoured by former Mercedes chief design officer Gorden Wagener. In production form, the VLE has naturally been toned down, but not so much that all character has been extinguished.

Mercedes-Benz VLE

Inside, there’s flexible seating with either three front-facing rows or two pairs of facing seats, familiar to anyone who’s had an upscale airport transfer. It’s all part of what Mercedes hopes will become a broad portfolio for this hard-working vehicle, with uses that range from family runabout to commercial transportation. With moveable seats for up to eight, the model marks the debut of Mercedes’ new Van Architecture.

Passenger comfort is of prime concern in this sector, especially when scene setters in Eastern markets have made a substantial pivot away from luxury saloon cars to upscale MPVs.

This new focus is exemplified by what Mercedes calls the MBUX Rear Space Experience. This is shorthand for the plethora of in-car entertainment systems available to passengers, culminating in a retractable 31.3-inch 8K screen that folds down from the headliner.

Ultra-fast 800-volt charging and a suggested range of 435 miles bring added practicality (let’s not forget that its VW rival, the Buzz, can barely manage 200 miles on a good day). Top-of-the-line models get Airmatic suspension and there’s also rear-axle steering to make this big car feel more wieldy in tight spots.

Renault R-Space Lab Concept

On a smaller scale but no less intriguing is this new concept from Renault, the product of the company’s new far-reaching Futurama laboratory. The R-Space Lab is a compact monobox design, a genre the company practically had all to itself back in the heyday of the original 1980s-era Renault Espace.

At 4.5m long and 1.5m tall, the R-Space Lab is relatively compact by contemporary standards. The R-Space Lab is also less overtly van-like than the VLE, but there is a renewed focus on a reconfigurable interior, with a passenger seat that can slide back to interact with the rear seats.

The digital cockpit has also been shaped with space-saving in mind, from the compact steering wheel to a multi-functional glovebox than can fold out to provide more space to recline. A full panoramic roof also adds to the spacious feel, while rear seats fold to create a completely flat floor for load-carrying and even car-camping.

Mercedes-Benz VLE, more information at Mercedes-Benz.co.uk

Renault R-Space Lab Concept, more information at Renault.co.uk

Renault continues its creative collaboration with agency and mobility design lab TheArsenale with a new exhibition celebrating the imminent launch of the Renault Twingo’s latest iteration. This pint-sized city car is getting a much-anticipated all-electric rebirth as the Twingo E-Tech, with promising early signs that Renault is continuing its fine run of recent form.

The newest venture between Renault and TheArsenale is ‘Twingomania’, a collection of contemporary mobility solutions tweaked to reference the familiar, friendly form of the diminutive new machine. It follows on in a similar vein from the ‘4 Movements’ display curated alongside the Renault 4 E-Tech’s appearance at the 2024 Paris Motor Show.

‘Twingomania’ shares an obsession with compact mobility of all stripes. TheArsenale describes it as a ‘cultural activation rooted in mobility, design, and European creative culture’, and the net has been cast a little wider, albeit still following the same approach of presenting small mobility start-ups as part of the Renault extended universe.

This time around, there are six participants, all European companies operating outside the norm with an innovative central idea. Presented at the 2026 Brussels Motor Show, they all feature the familiar Twingo green, as well as patterns and graphics based on the car’s bold visual identity.

The group kicks off with the Twingo Elwing, an electric skateboard developed with the Bordeaux-based company Elwing and the Twingo Pamela, a BMW-style cargo bike from another French manufacturer, Pamela Bikes.

Stepping up a gear is the Twingo Vässla, an urban electric scooter from the Swedish brand. The scooter has been tweaked to include the Twingo E-Tech’s signature arched front headlight. Vässla, which is based in Billdal, works hand in hand with Swedish tech company Teenage Engineering on its industrial design.

The six products also include a lightweight electric motorcycle, the Twingo Vega. The French manufacturer Moto Vega has created a pared-back machine – again with that single familiar headlight – that packs a 7kWh battery for an urban range of 86 miles.

The final two products take the Twingo ethos off the streets and into the water. Twingo Kahe is a modular electric water propulsion system. Built by French manufacturer Kahe Nautic, the unit is a one-person pod that serves as a tiny submersible power unit, pulling a swimmer or diver through the water at speeds of up to 10km/h.

It’s joined by the Twingo Mo-jet, a modular, multifunctional electric surfboard from German manufacturer Mo-jet. Capable of being used as a propelled surfboard or bodyboard, or even of towing a water-skier, the Mo-jet expands the possibilities of leisure at sea.

All the mobility products in the ‘Twingomania’ display have been made available to buy on The Originals, the Renault online store for accessories, fashion and other merchandise.

TheArsenale.com, @TheArsenale, Renault.co.uk, TheOriginals-store.Renault.com

Strictly speaking, this is generation four of the Twingo. The name carries such resonance because of the impact of the very first Twingo, which debuted back in 1993. Evolving out of Renault’s desire to create an ultra-compact minivan-style successor to the long-running Renault 4, various ideas were kicked around throughout the 1980s, including the W60 concept by Lamborghini designer Marcello Gandini.

Following a successful concept overseen by long-serving Renault designer Jean-Pierre Ploué, under the direction of Renault’s then design leader, Patrick Le Quément, a production car was shaped, retaining the one-box shape, four-square stance, deliberate cute ‘froggy’ headlights and an interior trimmed in bold 1980s colours and fabrics. In October 1992, the Twingo – a name that blends three dances, Twist, Swing and Tango – made its debut at the Paris Auto Show.

The UK never got a right-hand-drive version of Twingo I, but the car was a big hit in France and the rest of Europe. Simultaneously stripped down and rich with invention, the interior was like stepping into a piece of Memphis furniture.

The design was avant-garde but also hugely popular, a trick that Le Quément pulled off time and time again during his time at Renault (with only a few notable disasters).

Some 2.6 million examples of the Twingo I were made, with the last rolling off the line of a factory in Colombia in 2012. Meanwhile, Twingo II debuted in 2007 and almost immediately the magic was gone. Larger and more generic, it no longer had the individual flair of the original. There were occasional pockets of brightness, like the sporty Renault Twingo RS Gordini edition, but the design lacked spark.

With the Twingo III, Renault made a concerted effort to revive the spirit of the original. Co-developed with Daimler, which used the same platform to underpin the Smart ForFour, the little four-door had an engine in the rear, which didn’t help the interior packaging. It was characterful, however, and also formed the basis of Renault’s second-ever electric car, the Twingo Z.E.

Renault Twingo E-Tech will be for sale in 2026

Now we have Twingo IV, revealed this week ahead of global sales starting in 2026. The first thing to note is that this isn’t just an unashamed revival of the qualities and character of the original, but also a validation of the commercial potential of ultra-compact, so-called A-segment, electric city cars.

Renault wants the new car – previewed with last year’s Twingo Concept – to be available for less than €20,000, although there will be plenty of opportunities to accessorise and specify way above that mark.

Inside and out, the new Twingo pays homage to the original. The colour palette is more 2020s tasteful than 1990s nostalgic, but flexible design features, like the sliding rear seats and removable accessories, are both playful and practical. The clearest nods to the 1990s are the LED head and taillights, along with the one-box silhouette. Dimensionally, although the new car is 3.8m long versus 3.4m for the original (and 1.7m wide versus 1.6m), it still counts as a compact in today’s bloated marketplace.

The purity of that first Twingo can be seen in Sabine Marcelis’ art car, created as part of the company’s drive to remind modern minds of its past city car glories, ahead of the release of the E-Tech 4, 5 and Twingo models.

Time has shown it to be a successful strategy; while Peugeot and Citroën are dancing delicately around the idea of raiding their much-loved back catalogues for ideas, Renault has thrown caution to the wind and gone all-in.

The new Twingo E-Tech electric completes the trifecta of compact EVs that began with the best-selling Renault 5 and continued with the Renault 4. Call it 1990s nostalgia if you like, but the Twingo looks like another hit along Renault’s road to revival.

Renault Twingo E-Tech electric, more information at Renault.co.uk

Ahead of the opening of its new museum in Flins-sur-Seine, Paris, Renault will be holding an auction of 100 key models – duplicates – from its comprehensive collection of over 800 ‘emblematic and unique models’. Held by longstanding partner Artcurial Motorcars, the auction will take place at the French manufacturer’s historic Flins-sur-Seine factory outside Paris on 7 December 2025.

Founded in 1899 by the Renault brothers, Louis, Marcel and Fernand, the company has been at the heart of French industrial and cultural life ever since. Its range of small cars, continuing right up to the present day, epitomise Gallic ingenuity and innovation. The auction acknowledges this, as well as Renault’s pioneering role in EVs and its status as a garlanded player in global motorsport.

We’ve perused the auction catalogue and come up with a wishlist of 14 vehicles that embody the spirit of the brand.

Lot 13: Renault Floride Cabriolet ‘Disney’, 1960

This elegant two-seater was designed by two of the biggest names in Italian coachbuilding, Frua and Ghia. This particular example had a stint in Disneyland Paris, hence the unique colour scheme.

Lot 21: Renault 4 électrique ‘Zity’, 1991

Not an early example of Renault’s electrification history, but an example converted into an EV in 2021 to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the original Renault 4 – which remained in production from 1961 all the way through to 1991.

Lot 22: Renault 5 décorée ‘police’, 1983

Another sleight of hand – this 1980s-era Renault 5 was kitted out as a police car by the team at the Renault museum. It is, however, a very late model R5 in excellent condition and as such can easily be restored to original condition.

Lot 26: Renault 4 F4 électrique fourgonnette Darty, 1985

The utilitarian ‘fourgonnette’ panel-van variant of the R4 was a mainstay of small French businesses from the 1960s onwards. This rare survivor is another EV conversion, finished in the colours of French electrical goods chain Darty.

Lot 42: Renault Twingo II Concept, 2006

In addition to reviving the 4 and 5 nameplates for its new era of small electric cars, Renault has just unveiled a new Twingo. This non-roadworthy concept car from 2006 previewed the second generation Twingo, a city car that ultimately lacked the original’s visual verve.

Lot 48: Renault Trafic Deck'Up Concept car, 2004

A conceptual blend of off-roader, panel van and beach buggy, the Trafic Deck’Up debuted at the Brussels Motor Show as a quirky preview of the incoming angular Renault house style and the new century’s search for automotive form factors.

Lot 62: Renault Spider prototype, 1998

The Spider was a cult two-seater from Renault Sport, first suggested with a concept at the 1995 Geneva Motor Show, a time when Renault ruled the Formula 1 track. Stripped down and ultra-light – the car was ultimately sold without a windscreen – this early production prototype is sadly a non-runner.

Lot 65: Renault 5 GT Turbo Gr. N, 1990

As well as Formula 1, Renault was also a fearsome competitor in the World Rally Championship. This particular Renault 5 GT Turbo rally car won Group N in the 22nd Ivory Coast-Bandama Rally in 1990, driven by Alain Oreille and Michel Roissard.

Lot 68: Renault Mégane III Trophy maquette, 2009

A rolling model of a race-spec Renault Mégane, this chiselled Mégane RS III Trophy resembles the production car on steroids. Enterprising enthusiasts will need to do a lot of work to bring this maquette to life.

Lot 100: Renault RE 40-04 Formule 1, 1983

American Eddie Cheever replaced René Arnoux in the 1983 F1 season. This car, one of several F1 cars for sale in the auction, finished 3rd at that year’s Monza GP. Cheever’s teammate, Alain Prost, is perhaps better known, as a four-time World Drivers' Champion. It was Renault who dominated the Constructors’ Championship through the 1990s its their partnership with Williams.

Lot 154: Renault Clio II 6-wheel pick-up, 2001

This Frankenstein creation started out as a Renault Clio II, before being transformed by Renault factory workers as a training exercise. Low speed use only – perfect for parades.

Lot 169: Renault Operandi concept van, 2000

This styling model of the Operandi concept van still looks fresh today, with its chunky utilitarian styling inside and out and compact dimensions.

Lot 176: Chausson P.E.R.L.E. concept car, 1989

Developed by now-defunct supplier Chausson, the Projet d'Études et de Recherches d'une Ligne Européenne was powered by Renault and first exhibited at the 1987 Frankfurt Motor Show. The concept had a brief cameo in Wim Wenders’ Until the End of the World.

Lot 179: Renault 21 ex-Lévy and Goliath, 1986

Another cinematic vehicle, this time from Gérard Oury’s 1987 comedy Lévy and Goliath. In the film, this extraordinary creation results from an accidental delivery of cocaine to the production line at the Renault factory.

Artcurial Motorcars will hold the Renault Icons sale at Flins-sur-Seine, Paris, on 7 December 2025, Artcurial.com, @Artcurial__

Munich’s IAA Mobility Show is a different kind of motorshow, reflecting the industry’s general shift away from big-budget events that have fallen out of favour with the public. In addition to an IAA Summit for professionals and media, designed to entice big-name manufacturers alongside start-ups, commentators and industry-watchers from all aspects of mobility design, and the regular show stand arrangement, there’s also the IAA Open Space.

The last is an open event for the general public, scattered around the streets, stores and exhibition spaces in the heart of Munich and designed to put new ideas and fresh launches in front of the very people who’ll ultimately end up buying them. The bi-annual event started in 2021, grew more in 2023, and this time around, there were even more manufacturers involved, with major announcements made across the board.

Some of the concepts on show have already broken cover, including the Vauxhall Corsa GSE Vision Gran Turismo and the Audi Concept C, as well as a major activation by Cupra.

Read on to discover our selection of key reveals from the show.

BMW iX3

The home-ground advantage was played by all the German manufacturers. Munich is, after all, the home of BMW. To consolidate this status, BMW chose the IAA to launch its ‘Neue Klasse’ iX3, the first production version of a new design language that’s been previewed by a number of concept cars.

In the metal, this new all-electric mid-sized SUV impresses with its restraint, and the apparent about-face BMW is taking with its signature kidney grilles – once huge, now daintily proportioned. The interior pairs a central touchscreen with a slim, wide display set just beneath the windscreen. There’s more minimalism here as well, especially on the pared-back door trims. With a promised range of up to 500 miles, the iX3 will be one of the first true volume cars to do away with range anxiety altogether.

BMW.co.uk, @BMW

Volkswagen

VW also had a slew of major announcements up its sleeve, both for the main Volkswagen brand and for wider activity in the VW Group. In addition to cementing the existence of a compact ‘Electric Urban Car Family’, featuring distinct but related models from Volkswagen, Cupra, and Škoda, all priced from around €25,000, VW also doubled down on a new naming strategy.

Turns out that the ID. name plate will no longer be the only sign of a pure VW EV. As of 2026, what would have been the ID.2 will now be known as the ID.Polo, with ID.Golf to follow. The realisation that these classic model names, with their decades of history and loyal following, could simply be taken into the electric era seems like a no-brainer – the only surprise is that it took VW so long to realise.

The ID.Polo, along with its GTI sibling, were both shown at IAA – albeit still in camouflage – along with the ID.Cross concept, a compact urban SUV. Both slot into the Electric Urban Car Family announced above, alongside the Cupra Raval and Škoda’s Epiq.

VW also showed the newest version of the popular T-Roc, another compact SUV. Finally, there was the ID.Every1, a concept with the task of bringing VW back into the ultra-compact urban car category like classic older models such as the Lupo and the Up!.

Volkswagen.de, @Volkswagen

Porsche 911 Turbo S

Porsche presented its new flagship 911, the 911 Turbo S. A legendary name, this latest version of the evergreen sports car goes heavy on the tech. Power output is at record levels (711 PS), thanks in part to a T-Hybrid powertrain that incorporates two electric exhaust gas turbochargers. There’s also all-wheel drive and an EV-bothering 0-62mph sprint time of 2.5 seconds.

Like all 911s, the new Turbo S is designed to be easy to live with, combining that massive power with a spacious cabin, great sightlines and a colossal breadth of dynamic ability, from everyday use about town to the challenge of the track.

Porsche.com, @Porsche

Mercedes-Benz GLC

Another big reveal came from Mercedes, which countered BMW’s iX3 with the new version of its equivalent model, the GLC. The all-electric Mercedes-Benz GLC with EQ Technology (the car’s official name) also demonstrates a company rowing back from the idea of separate lines of ICE and EV cars. The first GLC was introduced back in 2015 and a decade has truly transformed the model.

Instead of its rather lumpy forebears, the newest GLC is relatively slim in profile for an SUV, with neat rear-light treatment. The big grille rather lets the ensemble down – no lessons learned from BMW’s vogue for shrinking front-end graphics. Inside, Mercedes is still wedded to vast displays with the latest iteration of the dash-devouring MBUX Hyperscreen.

The car’s operating system uses a so-called multi-agent approach, taking the best bits of AI from both Google and Microsoft. As a result, Mercedes claims that ‘for the customer, talking to the MBUX Virtual Assistant is like chatting with a friend – it can provide detailed responses and answer follow-up questions without the need to repeat context’.

Mercedes-Benz.de, @MercedesBenz

Avatr Vision Xpectra concept

There were also plenty of Chinese brands represented, marked a fresh wave of new metal intended to increase the country’s Western market share. New models from Leapmotor, Deepal, GAC and Dongfeng included the GS7 SUV, with its quirky animated headlights, the Aion UT, as well as the arrival of Dongfeng’s new Forthing sub-brand in Europe and the Huawei-owned Aito brand, which showed three new crossover models.

Our attention was grabbed by Avatr’s dramatic Vision Xpectra, a vast new concept created by this sub-brand from Changan Automobile to express what it calls ‘emotive luxury’.

As well as the sheer scale of the 5m-plus limousine, with its near fully-glazed upper body, there’s a wealth of technology crammed into the interior, much of which is controlled via a VPA (Virtual Personal Assistant), the latest must-have for modern cars. Shown alongside production models, including the Avatr 06, 07, 11 and 12, the Xpectra is a bold statement of intent.

Vision.Avatr.com

Polestar 5

Polestar finally revealed the production version of the long-awaited Polestar 5 at Munich. As the EV company gets closer and closer to completing its projected line-up, the arrival of the 5 marks the most premium Polestar yet, with the Performance model starting at £104,900 for the Launch Edition.

Based on the original 2020 Precept Concept, the Polestar 5 is described by the company as a ‘performance grand tourer’. The dual motor model should be good for around 400 miles of range, whilst the rapid Polestar 5 Performance is rated at 351 miles. At 5m in length, the Polestar 5 is limousine-sized, with rear space and accoutrements to match.

Polestar.com, @Polestarcars

Mini John Cooper Works concepts

Mini created a large-scale installation in the heart of Munich, complete with faux Tube station entrances and lots of lovely British clichés. When it came to cars, the BMW offshoot chose to present a collaboration with the lifestyle brand Deus Ex Machina, which resulted in two one-off John Cooper Works cars, dubbed The Machina and The Skeg.

Drawing influences from drag racing and surf culture, the two concepts are full-blooded race cars and have inspired a capsule collection from the brand. Asymmetric styling cues and liveries are coupled with spoilers and slick tyres, with one car celebrating EV power and the other traditional ICE.

Mini.de, Deuscustoms.eu

Renault Clio

The Clio is an important car for Renault, even though most of the company’s recent attention has focused on the 4 and the 5. The Clio was a mainstay for many years, and now the compact car is back, this time with a hybrid powertrain. The sixth generation of this popular small car is actually larger than ever before and shares several interior elements with the 4 and 5 models.

There’s little evidence of retro design here, however, with a more aggressive front-end styling. Despite the hybrid power, it’s still a light car by modern standards, and should be impressively economical as a result.

Renault.de, @Renault_de

Škoda Vision O

We see hints of the 1954 Chevrolet Corvette Nomad in Škoda’s brave Vision O estate car concept. At a time when the practical, elegant estate has been all but decimated by the SUV, the brand’s decision to double down and reinvigorate the segment is a welcome one.

Look beyond those very conceptual doors and you’ll see a finely proportioned wagon that combines Škoda’s playful but practical approach with a new design language, ‘Modern Solid’. The dashboard gets the two-screen set-up also seen in BMW’s iX3, with the upper level dubbed the ‘Škoda Horizon Display’, while there’s also a softer, more natural approach to interior materials and aesthetics, as well as ‘Bio-Adaptive Lighting’ that uses natural light cycles to keep occupants feeling fresh and alert.

As well as 650 litres of luggage capacity, the Vision O also debuts new ‘Simply Clever’ features, the little design add-ons that have come to define Škoda’s attention to detail. The signature door-stowed umbrella is present and correct (no fewer than four of them), and the car incorporates a fridge as well as a detachable Bluetooth speaker.

Also on display was the new Škoda Epiq, a conceptual preview of the company’s contribution to VW’s quartet of compact all-electric city cars. Like its siblings, the Epiq will hit the streets in 2026, largely unchanged from the car you see here.

With a low price, above average range for the sector (c.260 miles) and a spacious, functional interior, the Epiq will be the first production car to incorporate the Modern Solid design language and shows the brand hasn’t forgotten its functional, affordable roots.

Skoda-Auto.com, @Skodagram

Hyundai Concept Three

This is the Concept Three, a preview of the next and smallest car to bear Hyundai’s Ioniq sub-brand EV badge. Expected to reach production as the Ioniq 3, if you overlook the tinted windows, lemon-yellow interior and purple highlights, you’ll see the fundamental silhouette of the next-gen compact car.

The Three actually brought to mind the 2007 Hyundai HND-3 concept, which in turn reached production as the quirky and asymmetric Veloster in 2011. Both cars had an unusual door arrangement, something that’s carried through to this concept, with its coach rear door.

The concept demonstrates what Hyundai is calling its ‘Art of Steel’ design language, doubling down on the industrial conglomerate’s impressive ability with the material, along with the Parametric Pixel detailing seen across the rest of the Ioniq range. All European EVs were on display at IAA Mobility 2025, as well as the Insteroid concept first shown at Seoul in the Spring.

Hyundai.com, @Hyundai

The year was capped off with one of the most widely seen and discussed concept cars of recent times, Jaguar’s controversial Type 00. Following hot on the heels of an even more hotly contested brand re-launch, Type 00 ticked all the boxes of a radical re-boot, a polarising proposal that manages to keep Jaguar’s production intentions swathed in some mystery.

Some manufacturers were content to let their concepts stay purely in the realms of the imagery – Renault’s R17 restomod springs to mind – while others put forward ideas that felt like their time would never come, for better or for worse. Concepts are mostly just that - from our list of 2023’s conceptual bests, only the Callum Skye has made it through to production readiness.

So what would we like to see built in 2025? If DS can distil elements of its SM Tribute into a production car, that would be a welcome sight, and Alpine’s A390 β Concept indicates there’s more scope to the performance brand than first appeared. Read on to discover our top ten.

01. Jaguar Type 00

Jaguar’s svelte Type 00 wasn’t really much of a provocation in design terms, but some people took the big electric GT concept very personally. New materials, new forms, new ethos and new branding, all wrapped up in a Miami Pink bodyshell that hints at next year’s all-new production car.

READ MORE

02. Tesla Cybercab Robotaxi

Tesla’s Cybercab was an inexplicably svelte two-seater that promised a level of autonomy many doubted it could deliver by 2026, when the production version arrives. Now that Musk has better access to the rule book, all that might change.

READ MORE

03. Verne autonomous taxi

Another ambitious conceptual foray into autonomous transport, Verne’s driverless machine also offered only two seats, albeit in a much more compact footprint. Rimac Automobili’s side project wants to get going in Europe before the end of the decade.

READ MORE

04. Scout Motors Traveler and Terra concepts

Volkswagen re-booted Scout, a venerable name in all-American SUVs, with the Traveler and Terra concepts. Electrified and simplified, the production cars that follow should hew closely to this admirable template.

READ MORE

05. SM Tribute by DS Automobiles

DS Automobiles finally found the right part of their archive with this fantastic homage to the SM of the 70s. The French company promises that upcoming models will contain more than a hint of the SM Tribute’s fine lines.

READ MORE

06. Renault R17 electric restomod x Ora-ïto

Part of its strategy of bespoke one-off retro-reworks in collaboration with named designers, Renault took time out from its impressive production car revival to showcase the Ora-ïto-styled R17, a symphony in classy brown.

READ MORE

07. Cadillac SOLLEI Concept

Cadillac offset their line-up of chunky SUVs with this wild foray into conceptual design, a vast convertible that recalled the company’s 60s and 70s heyday. From its Manila Cream colour scheme to its elaborate marquetry detailing, the SOLLEI shone brightly.

READ MORE

08. KIA PV5 WKNDR and EV9 ADVNTR

Although Kia has a showroom full of futuristic production cars, it still found time to put out two conceptual visions of future campers. We especially liked the PV5 WKNDR, van-like and vowel-less, with a multi-functional interior.

READ MORE

09. BMW Vision Neue Klasse X

BMW’s clarity of conceptual vision has come into sharp focus in recent years, and the Vision Neue Klasse X was no exception. Promising a new design language for its X-series of SUVs, this was one vision we hope materialises soon.

READ MORE

10. Alpine A390 β Concept

Alpine’s A390 Beta was one of several high-profile French designs revealed at the revitalised 2024 Mondial de l'Auto in Paris. The stylish electric crossover concept showed a way for Renault’s sporting relation to break out into new markets.

READ MORE

This assorted collection of contemporary transportation devices is a celebration of all things French and quirky. ‘4 Movements’ is a project assembled by creative agency TheArsenale, put together in honour of the launch of the new Renault 4 E-Tech, first seen at the 2024 Paris Motor Show.

TheArsenale, founded by Patrice Meignan, curated a collection of four transportation start-ups, all of which embody and embrace the kind of timeless, rugged style that Renault hopes it has embodied in the R4. ‘4 Movements represents everything we believe in at TheArsenale – pushing boundaries, honouring legacy, and reshaping what mobility can be,’ says Meignan.

The project follows on from an earlier collaboration, ‘5 Movements’, assembled to accompany the launch of the Renault 5 E-Tech, demonstrating that the company is having something of a renaissance, both in terms of in-house design and creative collaborations (we especially liked the Ora-ïto-designed Renault 17 restomod from earlier in 2024).

The four companies handily represent air, sea and water, and each design been finished in the Cloud Blue colour first used on the original Renault 4 back when it was unveiled in 1962. Lighting and materials are also influenced by the new EV. ‘We are proud to be partnering four French start-ups presenting four all-electric means of mobility,’ says Renault’s global chief marketing officer Arnaud Belloni. ‘It’s a stylish way to show the general public how e-mobility has developed to encompass all forms of transport.’

First up is Toulouse-based start-up Aura Aero, with its Integral E, an electric two-seater private aircraft that’s offered as a gateway to zero-emission aviation. Just 7.26m long with a wingspan of 8.78m, the Integral E has a flight time of one hour and can be recharged in less than half an hour.

The caravan was designed by Nantes-based Carapate Aventure, and takes its cue from the American-style teardrop travel trailer. Ultra-lightweight, the tiny 560kg caravan sleeps two and can easily be towed by an EV. An indoor-outdoor kitchen and transformable interior come as standard.

Ateliers HeritageBike build beautifully rugged electric bikes and motorbikes, blending retro styling with a rugged sensibility inspired by 1980s-era off-road bikes. Its Heritage Spirit Scrambler model shown here has a standard range of 110km and is hand-made at the company’s factory in Annecy.

Finally, there’s Searider, which specialises in water e-bikes. Its Seacruiser model has twin 22 kW electric motors and a top speed of up to 55 km/h. It’ll run for up to 90 minutes and has design elements taken from the R4, most notably the headlight (a trait it shares with the Heritage Spirit Scrambler).

All four of the models shown here are intended for small-scale production, with initial orders taken at the Paris show. The intention is to have each machine ready by spring 2025, when the first Renault 4 EVs also hit the roads.

Renault 4, available Spring 2025, Renault.co.uk, @RenaultUK

TheArsenale, TheArsenale.com, @TheArsenale

Aura Aero, Aura-Aero.com, @Aura-Aero

Carapate Aventure, Carapate-Aventure.fr, @Carapate_Aventure

Ateliers HeritageBike, Ateliers-HeritageBike.com, @Ateliers_HeritageBike

Searider, Searider.eu, @Searider.Official

This is Ora-ïto’s radical interpretation of the Renault 17, a wedge-shaped 1970s-era saloon that has been re-born for the electric age. It’s the fourth project in an ongoing annual series in which the French manufacturer invites contemporary designers to explore, enhance and revamp classic forms from its archives, ostensibly as a way to celebrate the electric era but also as a literal vehicle for new material and formal approaches.

The series began with Mathieu Lehanneur’s Suite N°4 (2021), the Renault 5 Diamant by Pierre Gonalons (2022) and last year’s Twingo reinvented by Sabine Marcelis. On the cusp of the launch of the all-new Renault 5 EV, La Regie has once more delved into the archive, this time tapping Ora-ïto talents for a recreation of the Renault 17. Shortlisted for the project by Patrice Meignan, CEO and founder of TheArsenale creative consultancy, the designer jumped at the chance to take part.

‘I very quickly saw that I could do something special because there was a design language there that was similar to mine,’ the designer says, adding that although the R17 isn’t a classic like the Cinq, the original 1972 design has a creased, wedgy style that has whipped back around into fashion.

The design process was relatively rapid. While the concept retains the original car’s glasshouse and mechanical components like the door mechanisms, underneath the new carbon fibre bodywork is an all-electric powertrain. ‘The idea was to keep the spirit of the car but also make it simpler and cleaner,’ Ito says, ‘it’s the style of the 1970s but with a more minimal point of view.’ Flared wheelarches are paired with a refined new front and rear end, the latter with a full-width LED light bar and a ‘shark-like’ front with abstracted radiator grille, slender LED lights and mouth-like vent.

‘I didn’t want it to look like a race car,’ Ito says, adding that the redesign ‘has an architectural vision.’ Throughout this process, his original visions evolved into a restomod-style approach, quite different from the radicalism inherent in his 2011 Citroën collaboration. That project resulted in the radical, sculptural evomobil and UFO models, two transportation devices that were more akin to wheel-less spaceships than regular cars.

This was an altogether more formal project, one that involved close collaboration with Renault’s design team. ‘They were amazing – they did all the 3D modelling, and I pushed them, and they were always willing to try things,’ Ito says. Fully drivable, thanks to its EV underpinnings, the R17 concept also includes a functional interior, with dials and graphics designed by Ora-ïto’s studio.

‘We really went into the details on every element,’ he explains, ‘the dials were inspired by my form language, “Grammatology”, working alongside interface designers.’ Fabric and materials evoke the era’s residential interiors, with their curved wood and aluminium trim. The new bodywork is finished in a dark metallic brown, another nod to the 1970s. ‘Inside, it’s like you’re in a 3D render – the car feels almost unreal,’ Ora-ïto says.

The designer also cites the first Blade Runner as a point of departure, and there’s definitely a hint of art director Syd Mead’s visionary futurism in the concept. ‘This could be Austin Powers’s car, or the Jetsons,’ he adds. Transportation is currently riding high on the studio’s agenda. ‘I’m really enjoying mobility design at the moment.’

Recent projects include Nice’s tramway system and the forthcoming Marseille metro. Whilst this Renault will remain a one-off, it surely won’t be long before an adventurous automotive manufacturer comes knocking.

Ora-Ito.com, Renault.co.uk

We cast our eyes back on Renault’s first three ‘restomod’ icons project

October 2021: Suite N°4 by Mathieu Lehanneur

Described by the French designer as a ‘mobile hotel room’, Suite N°4 was a radical reinterpretation of the classic Renault 4L that ended up being a modernist room on wheels, with clear polycarbonate body panels and a lavishly upholstered interior.

Renault.co.uk, MathieuLehanneur.fr, @MathieuLehanneur

July 2022: Renault 5 Diamant by Pierre Gonalons

The Diamant proved that the Renault 5 is in the pink at 50, Renault and French designer Pierre Gonalons created a flamboyant one-off version of the 1970s original, with jewel-like gold trim and a unique marble and carbon fibre steering wheel.

Media.Renault.com, PierreGonalons.com, @PierreGonalons

June 2023: Twingo by Sabine Marcelis

Dutch designer Sabine Marcelis marked three decades of the cultish compact city car, re-evaluating the Twingo's one-box shape through light and transparency.

Renault.co.uk, SabineMarcelis.com, @Sabine_Marcelis

We’ve already reported the positivity surrounding the launch of the new all-electric Renault 5 E-Tech at the 2024 Geneva Motor Show. Now we take a deeper dive into some of its hidden design details and also its designers’ future dreams for the model, via exclusive chats with Renault Group chief design officer Laurens van den Acker and brand design director Gilles Vidal

Wallpaper*: The Renault 5 is a clear case of ‘heritage mining’ like the Fiat 500, but they’re not always products forward-facing designers like to create. What’s your view?

Gilles Vidal: For years I never thought I would do something like this. Ten years ago it would have made no sense, as it would have been petrol and whatever. But now to be able to do a Renault 5 EV at a very affordable price, feels right and resonates. So why shouldn’t we? In-house we talk about ‘legendary icons’ and ‘future icons’. This will be in the ‘legendary icon’ category with the forthcoming Renault 4.

Wallpaper*: With prices starting at circa £25,000 are you also looking at much higher-priced collaborative models – like the Fiat 500 x Gucci – given your CEO Luca de Meo’s history at Fiat? 

Gilles Vidal: We might have a plan like that [laughs]. If it was the Renault Captur, nobody would come to us in a similar way. But when you start to make iconic things, something can happen. We’re a mainstream brand, but we want to trigger these special effects.

Wallpaper*: Customisation seems to be a big part of the 5’s character too? 

Gilles Vidal: We wanted a ‘lipstick lid’ type feeling to the end of the gear selector stalks and you can swap those pieces for different colour schemes and effects. You can have the 1972 logo on the centre lid storage too, and even a baguette basket clipped-on.

Wallpaper*: Will customisation be a way of extending the 5’s lifecycle too?

Laurens van den Acker: Well, CEO Luca de Meo’s idea is definitely not to treat this car as a normal ‘facelift after three years and then give it a last push with a limited series’. This is an icon and needs to have a different lifecycle. We see collaborations and unique proposals, preferably with French brands, luxury or sporty. 

The secret of a truly popular car in my view, is that you can put many faces on it. I could see this car with a very chic Parisian lady and a Gucci handbag, but also with a young punk as a sporty racer. Or a completely dressed-down simple version that just wants to be anonymous. There are some cars that can be pulled in all these different directions and the Renault 5 is one.

Wallpaper*: Talk to us about the 5’s special French soundtrack?

Laurens van den Acker: We got to work with Jean-Michel Jarre on the EV’s sound. Like many people that are truly successful he was very generous and down-to-earth and didn’t send his underlings to work with us. He was enthusiastic and got his hands dirty. The guy is 75 years old and could choose to do other stuff, but he’s as passionate about music as if he was 18. It was so much fun and very beneficial.

Wallpaper*: This is the first Renault to feature the in-screen ‘Reno’ avatar, but it looks to these eyes a little naive (and not in a good way)?

Laurens van den Acker: We’re seeing everyone starting to have some sort of personal assistance in their phone, or in their car to help organise their life and for me this [Reno] is the first small step. Nothing will stop us from improving it. At least we have a toe in the door. Avatars are a new player. In ten years’ time we’re going to laugh at this kind of stuff, but we’ll all have one. Then we’ll find out if the future is one that looks like a human, or a funny animal or just three dots. The truth is not out there yet.

Renault 5 E-Tech, available soon. For more information, visit Renault.co.uk

The 2024 Geneva International Motor Show (GIMS) saw the event return to its home city, albeit not quite as we once knew it. The marketing merit of hiring costly motor show space and its associated logistics under the same roof and time as dozens of your rivals had been questioned by carmakers well before the sharp shock of Covid. Since then, sometimes out of necessity, individual brands have sought to create a media buzz away from traditional motor shows through smaller physical events that can also be livestreamed to the world via digital means. 

Add in a group of many carmakers still very unhappy at losing significant sums of money invested in the cancelled 2020 Geneva International Motor Show (the organisers labelled the pandemic an insurance force majeur to avoid paying major compensation and it all went online instead), and it’s unsurprising that the brands attending the 2024 Geneva International Motor Show were mainly new ones.

The Renault Group was the biggest ‘legacy’ player to go large – appropriately launching its ‘legacy-inspired’ Renault 5 alongside three convincing Dacia sister brand models – but there were also eye-catching global and European physical reveals from BYD, IM, Lucid, MG and Yangwang, plus an intriguing virtual one from Pininfarina. 

The 2024 Geneva International Motor Show took up just a slice of the old show’s lower floor (the upper mezzanine floor was chock-full of lovely classic cars instead), while the 168,000 attendance at the reduced one-week show, which closed on Sunday 3 March, was more than two-thirds down on the 2019 event’s 602,000 visitors.

Nevertheless, there was still a lot of interesting product and people to see in one compact venue, without so many expensive and resource-intensive stands of yesteryear. Here are the highlights from Wallpaper*, featuring French flair, American innovation and Chinese surprises.

Geneva Motor Show 2024: the selection 

Le Car is back: Renault revives the 5

The Renault 5 Prototype was one of those rare cars that made the headlines well beyond automotive circles at its January 2021 launch. The Renault E-Tech production version revealed at the 2024 Geneva International Motor Show remains faithful to that concept while referencing design elements of various older generation R5s and with a well-judged new interior to match.

The public already seems to be sold, with a reported 50,000 orders placed. Prices should start from a likely £25,000 in early 2025 in the UK, launching with a 52kWh battery, 248-mile range and numerous customisable elements.  

Renault.co.uk, @RenaultUK

Dacia does brilliance on a budget

The scale of Dacia’s new bandwidth as a brand was displayed well in Geneva with a trio of global unveils. The formerly ‘value-only’ marque did show that side of its game, with the spruced-up Mk2 Spring EV now offered in right-hand drive and set to become the cheapest full-electric vehicle in Europe.

But it also showed its Mk3 Duster compact SUV, which has matured nicely and added more comfort, while still retaining a utilitarian charm suitable for outdoor pursuits. Talking of which, the Romanian brand also showed its wild but functionally on-point Sandrider prototype – derived from the Manifesto concept – that will race for real in the hardcore off-road 2025 Dakar Rally. Quite the transformation.                

Dacia.co.uk, @Dacia_UK

Pininfarina extends its range of eccentric luxury EVs

Storied Italian design house Pininfarina – responsible for the elegant bodywork for countless classic 20th-century Ferrari, Alfa, Maserati and even Peugeot models – went virtual at Geneva 2024 with its Enigma GT concept displayed in a walled room at the back of its stand.

Strapping in willing participants to a VR headset and directing them to the driver’s seat within a basic chassis with just a steering wheel for company, new-ish design boss Felix Kilbertus guided Wallpaper* through the VR experience of ‘sitting’ in the svelte sports car design, optimised for hydrogen power and virtually accessed via a huge top-opening clear canopy. The real thing would have been better, but this is still a typically beautiful Pininfarina design that goes even further than the recent Pura Vision concept.  

Pininfarina.it, @pininfarina_official

Airs and graces: Lucid comes to Europe

US brand Lucid is like Tesla without the controversy. The all-electric premium-luxury brand launched its first Air sports saloon in the US in late 2021 with sleek looks, lighting-quick speed and long range. Now gently easing itself into select continental European markets – including Germany this year – it showed its 464-mile range Air Pure and 2.0 seconds to 0-62mph Air Sapphire models in Geneva alongside its large seven-seat Gravity SUV.

The latter’s refined cabin has a glass windscreen that extends back to a panoramic roof for great views and boasts spacious accommodation. ‘Compromise is not in our DNA,’ says design director Derek Jenkins. ‘This is for seven passengers and luggage and the third row is designed for real adults.’ At the other end of the car a ‘two-person frunk seat’ where the engine would normally live is a novel hang-out spot. Right-hand drive models are a way off, but pencil 2026 in the diary.     

LucidMotors.com, @LucidMotors

A name reborn: MG & IM

Historic British brand MG was ‘near death’ some 20 years ago. But under patient new Chinese ownership it is now back on a roll. It sells healthy amounts of its smartly designed MG 4 EV and showed its all-electric production Cyberster roadster – close to its sportscar roots – with a wraparound, multiscreen cockpit and dramatic ‘scissor-style’ doors in Geneva. Expect prices from £50,000-plus with single and dual motor options, from summer 2024.

MG also has a new premium EV big brother brand called IM (Intelligent Mobility). Firmly targeting Tesla’s line-up, its quartet of models (two saloons and a pair of SUVs) are set to take on everything from the Model 3 to X in the UK from 2025, with long 373-497-mile ranges and interesting tech – note the pixel-based infotainment running through the L7 saloon’s rear light bar as just one example.     

MG.co.uk, @MGmotoruk

Twists and turns from BYD’s Yangwang brand

Chinese brand BYD (Build Your Dreams) sold more cars worldwide than Tesla in 2023 and started official UK car imports last year. With a credible-looking electrified range courtesy of ex-Alfa and Audi designer Wolfgang Egger and self-developed battery technology, the company is now branching upmarket with its new Yangwang brand. 

The imposing 5.3m-long U8 SUV is on sale in China and Yangwang could bring its rugged exterior and Bentley-with-a-Chinese-twist interior to Europe. Party trick tech includes four electric motors that can make left and right wheels spin in different directions to allow 360-degree ‘tank-style’ turns. One to watch, literally. 

Yangwangauto.com

Click through below to read our extensive coverage of the cars, concepts and collaborations shown at previous Geneva Motor Shows:

Geneva 2019 Concepts, 2019 Production Cars 

Geneva 2018 Concepts, 2018 Production Cars

Geneva 2017 Cars and Concepts

Geneva 2016 Cars and Concepts

Geneva 2014 Cars and Concepts

Geneva 2013 Cars and Concepts

Geneva 2012 Cars and Concepts

Geneva 2011 Cars and Concepts

Geneva 2010 Cars and Concepts

Geneva 2009 Cars and Concepts

Luxury MPVs are a new(ish) sector in Europe, even though the idea of a monobox multi-purpose vehicle can trace its origins to cars like the 1984 Renault Espace (which had its origins in Fergus Pollock’s work for Matra in the late 1970s) and even Mario Bellini’s 1972 Kar-a-Sutra concept. 

While Bellini’s counter-cultural vision suggested we switch to sprawling, well-upholstered living rooms on wheels, the MPV really came into its own as a family car. People movers and minivans ensured a journey was a shared experience, for good and for bad, all wrapped up in a form factor that allowed multiple offspring, luggage, pets and broken biscuits to inhabit the same space. 

MPVs gave way to SUVs, with their added layer of apparent impregnability luring families away from the far more practical body type. Although monobox car designs were left to minicab owners, it didn’t stop the development of a micro-niche, the luxury MPV. Mercedes continues to offer its V-Class in a range of different guises, while Volvo is soon to launch the China-only EM90. 

In fact, Asia is where minivans still rule the streets. As well as countless mass-market models for the Japanese, Chinese and Korean markets, you’ll also find luxury-spec models, including the Hongqi HQ9, the Zeekr 009 (the Volvo’s sister car), the Denza D9, the remarkably named Trumpchi M8 and the Buick GL8 Century. All the latter are very much China-only and reflect a cultural focus on the importance of the passenger, rather than the driver. 

Lexus is therefore making a bold statement by bringing the LM to Europe. Based on the hugely successful Toyota Alphard, the LM takes inspiration from classic limousines of old, as well as last decade’s official Alphard ‘Royal Lounge’ model. Tall, broad, slab-sided and not exactly handsome, the LM is certainly an imposing vehicle. A conventional two-seater cab is placed close to the front axle, with a rakish windscreen set far from the driver, below which is a baleen-esque example Lexus’s already bountiful front grille: ‘Darth Vader’ was one of the kindlier comparisons. The front seats offer excellent visibility, a superb navigation system, as well remote door operation for the rear and certainly won’t leave your chauffeur in any discomfort.

Whether the styling ticks your boxes or not is irrelevant, for all the action is in the back seat, accessed via twin sliding electric doors. All LMs come with just four seats, with space in the rear for two independent fully-reclining, first-class airliner-style chairs. 

Lexus LM is all about the back-seat experience

In this top-of-the-range LM LM350H Takumi model you also get an electrically operated, dimmable glass partition between front and rear, as well as full massage functions on the electric rear seats, a fridge, plus a 23-speaker stereo and 48-inch rear entertainment display. Armrests contain folding tray tables, each seat gets its own touchscreen controller, and there are enough blinds and lighting options to keep you busy for hours.

For the businessperson on the move, the LM is without direct equal. Throw in the company’s ruthless quality control, reliability and all-round efficiency (helped here by a hybrid 2.5-litre petrol engine and four-wheel-drive), and you have an unrivalled mobile office (and/or mobile relaxation pod). The downsides? It’s a lot of space to give over to two seats, regardless of how special they are. And can a minivan really hold its own alongside the LM’s equivalents?

Here's where the power of branding comes in. A long wheelbase Range Rover SV with the optional SV Signature Suite two-seat rear configuration is £207,260, around about the same price as a Bentley Flying Spur hybrid. The Mercedes S580 will seat an extra passenger and costs from £123,105. If the big screen is the big draw, your only other option is BMW’s all-electric i7, with its 31-inch Theatre Screen (£127,495).

In its most fully-laden specification, the Lexus is cheaper than all of them. It’s also decidedly different, even though it lacks the various USPs of these rivals (off-road ability, craftsmanship, heritage, performance, driving dynamics, elegance, etc, etc). As a cossetting corporate carapace, the LM’s form factor makes total sense, but it doesn’t speak to the emotions like the others, for better and for worse. However, if you tone down the styling a touch, perhaps the LM represents the true future of stealth wealth mobility. 

Lexus LM LM350H TAKUMI, from £112,955, Lexus.co.uk

Electrification isn’t just about mainstream autos; some of the most intriguing products of the last 12 months took modern batteries into new territories, from travel trailers to motorbikes, speedboats, pick-up trucks and even classic car conversions. Find out more in our top 10 transport design stories of 2023…

Top 10 transport design stories of 2023

01. TELO Pick-Up Truck

One of the USPs of fuseproject’s TELO is that it’s tiny, relatively speaking, cramming go-anywhere practicality into a stubby EV frame that’s shorter than a (modern) Mini. 

READ MORE

02. New compact camper vans

The renaissance in camper van and RV culture continued apace throughout 2023, with compact designs that double up as everyday drivers making a particular impact. 

READ MORE

03. Living Vehicle HD24

Californian company Living Vehicle launched the HD24, a home from home that also doubles up as an office on the move. Meticulous multi-functional design make this machine a highly desirable mobile des-res. 

READ MORE

04. Electrogenic 1929 Rolls-Royce Phantom II

Electrified classics are everywhere right now, but kudos to Electrogenic for applying the tech to a true vintage machine. This one-off 1929 Rolls-Royce has been transformed over 18 months, replacing the original monstrous engine with a battery pack without compromising its majestic stance.

READ MORE

05. Bentley Blower Jr

At the other end of the scale is this pocket-sized Bentley, shrunk and electrified by the Little Car Company. At 85 per cent scale, it’s still a sprightly two-seater. 

READ MORE

06. Fuell Fllow Motorbike

Electric touring motorbikes have yet to have their moment, but Fuell’s futuristic Fllow was a bright sign of things to come, mixing fast charging with a long range and plenty of performance. 

READ MORE

07. Fiat Topolino

Fiat’s tiny Topolino has yet to go on sale, but we’re eagerly awaiting a go. Based on the cracking little Citroën Ami, the Topolino truly captures the spirit of small Fiats of the distant past. 

READ MORE

08. Pebble Flow

If there was an award for the most sophisticated travel trailer of the age, the Pebble Flow would snap it up. With embedded electric power – to lessen the load on the tow vehicle – the four-berth Flow would light up any weekend away.

READ MORE

09. Renault Twingo by Sabine Marcelis

Renault continues to play with its icons and Sabine Marcelis’ take on the classic original Twingo followed Mathieu Lehanneur’s Renault 4 based Suite N°4, and Pierre Gonalons’ stylish Renault 5 Diamant. The French manufacturer will soon return to its roots as the king of small cars. 

READ MORE

10. Candela C-8 Polestar Edition

As a way of showcasing their power packs, Polestar fitted out the Candela C-8 hydrofoil with its hefty batteries. The resulting Polestar Edition blazes a trail for luxury electric watercraft. 

READ MORE

The third generation of the Dacia Duster, revealed in very late 2023, is a great automotive example of ‘enough’. It offers a no-nonsense, robust and utilitarian design at a very reasonable price, while still functioning as an appealing piece of sculpture, equally at home in the city or the countryside. 

‘We have new customers from higher-range cars, that can afford more expensive cars,’ says Dacia’s French design director David Durand, ‘but they are considering us as they’re not sure if it makes sense to put so much money into a car which could just get stuck in traffic. However, even if they are ready to be more “essential”, there are some things they really want. So we have to consider comfort, details, textiles and finishes. It’s new for us.’

The Duster’s stellar success certainly is new territory for Dacia. From an under-the-radar start back in 2010, the small-but-chunky model has sold 2.2 million units and is well on its way to becoming an icon for the Renault Group, which has owned the Romanian brand since 1999. In two model generations the Duster has transformed market perceptions from just being a poor-man’s car, to an ‘everyman, go anywhere choice’, somewhat akin to a modern-day Fiat Panda 4x4.

Dacia Duster SUV

The Mk3 Duster sits on new underpinnings able to accommodate petrol-electric hybrid engine options and its designers have made only subtle proportional changes to keep the design ‘fresh enough’ for another generation. As Durand continues: ‘Talking to customers they said, “Don’t touch it too much!” We have the [bigger] Bigster model arriving in a year, so it was easy for us not to increase everything, like is so often the case with model replacements, which are longer, higher and more of “this” and “that”. We chose to [broadly] keep the dimensions of the last generation, because we understood it was the perfect compromise between roominess and a big boot, but still compact and practical.’

The Mk3 Duster is a similar length as before (4.34m) but has a slightly wider track and lower roofline. Above the first-row passengers, the ceiling height has reduced by 10mm and at the rear by 50mm. According to Durand, this slightly reduces rearward driver vision but makes a huge improvement in aerodynamics and thus fuel consumption, while also managing to boost boot capacity (up 6 per cent to 472 litres). 

Ground clearance is reduced by 8mm on the two-wheel drive model, which also sports energy-saving tyres to improve CO2 efficiency, while the approach and departure angles on the underside of the four-wheel drive version are greater to make the car better able to navigate ruts, rocks and rivers. As Durand states firmly: 'The Duster is not a crossover, it’s a real SUV.'

While that capability stops short of a low-ratio gearbox associated with only the most serious off-roaders, it is nonetheless a versatile vehicle and better-looking than ever in Mk3 guise. The new model has a more horizontal and visually longer bonnet and higher beltline to make the car look more robust and well-balanced and its front face is more vertical compared to the Mk2. This has a practical benefit as well, allowing the driver to see the edges of the vehicle better while driving. 

The much-improved interior is more visually consistent with the exterior – see the repeated Y shapes for graphic proof – and offers an innovative fixing point system called YouClip. It can be employed in multiple locations inside the Duster to fix a phone cradle by the central screen, hook a bag to the passenger side of the centre console, or even a coat to the open tailgate edge, perhaps when changing after an outdoor adventure.

There’s more sustainable and overt content in the Duster too. A speckled material called ‘Starkle’ containing 20 per cent recycled plastic and remaining unpainted to show off its contents, is used to protect the car’s lower front, side and back edges. It’s another example of ‘enough’ and could well be. 

On sale from early 2024, the Duster is expected to start from circa £18,000.

Dacia.co.uk

Hot on the heels of Mathieu Lehanneur’s Suite N°4, an interior redesign based on the classic Renault 4L and Pierre Gonalons’ Renault 5 Diamant, the manufacturer has turned to another cutting-edge artist and designer to reimagine one of their more contemporary classic models. 

Sabine Marcelis’ Renault Twingo

Sabine Marcelis has tackled the Twingo, the cult city car first introduced in the early 1990s when Patrick Le Quément was Renault’s legendary head of design. A micro-sized monobox design, the Twingo embodied an era of full-on Gallic automotive eccentricity (something the subsequent Twingo, which shared a platform with the Ford Ka, failed to replicate), a quality lost for generations. 

The Dutch designer has been drafted in to celebrate the Twingo’s 30th anniversary, reshaping and reimagining the compact machine as an electric concept that accentuates the single-volume silhouette with its distinctive semi-circular headlights and modular interior. 

Transparency is the key to Marcelis’ approach, treating the body panels as if they were luminous and backlit, revealing the soft lines of their structural mouldings.

Inside, Marcelis’ ongoing experiments with light have been allowed free reign, with an interior broken down into solid volumes interspersed with translucent red details and a backlit dashboard.

‘I love the quirky details of the Twingo – the “frog eyes” for example,’ says Marcelis. ‘My challenge was to elevate them without losing their unique identity and to bring all elements into a more luxurious realm, activated by light and materiality.’ The interior of the original car was exceptionally spacious, especially by today’s standards, despite its ultra-compact footprint. ‘It was a fantastic opportunity, and a new field of exploration for me, as I'd never designed a car before,’ the designer continues. ‘Working on such an iconic and popular car was a real challenge, especially given the scale of the project.’

Renault describes the collaboration as ‘unique and unexpected’, preserving the best qualities of this diminutive machine without compromising Marcelis’ own artistic vision. By fitting the concept with an electric motor (the Twingo debuted with Renault’s venerable Cléon-Fonte petrol engine, a design that dated back to the early 1960s), the company has aligned one of its most iconic nameplates with the brand’s ongoing quest for electrification. 

‘[I wanted to] strip elements back to their essence and push the theme of mono-materiality even further by turning some elements into mono-elements, like the sunshade and front seats, which have been turned into singular elements,’ Marcelis explains. ‘And the body and windows are also all one single materiality.’ 

François Farion, Renault’s director of design, innovation and sustainability, describes it as a ‘carte blanche programme’. 

‘From the beginning, the role of project management was not to intervene in the designer’s view of the Twingo, but to provide automotive background, and try to make everything Sabine designed possible,’ he says. ‘We wanted to create an object that would still be a car: it is electric; it is not road-legal but can be driven; the incredible steering-wheel works, even if you hit a curb (which we did to test the robustness of the prototype!).’ 

Above all, Sabine Marcelis has stayed faithful to the overall spirit of the Twingo, even as she has transformed its materiality and functional appearance. ‘It has the lines and proportions that remind people of the original, iconic silhouette,’ Farion says, ‘lines which maximise the feeling of space. Sabine has not only embraced this but enhanced it through her work on structure/transparency, and incredible interior purity/simplicity.’ 

SabineMarcelis.com, Renault.co.uk

When the Volkswagen ID.Buzz finally arrived, it was clear that VW had spent plenty of time finessing the details. While the brand’s other ID models have been criticised for wayward software and less than inspiring styling, the ID.Buzz had a lot to live up to. 

The spirit of Volkswagens past hangs heavy over the ID.Buzz. It’s not just in the retro two-tone paintwork, but in the scope of the whole endeavour; a van-like vehicle that can be adapted into an almost infinite variety of uses, just like the original Type 2.

Ironically, it’s taken until now for an EV platform to provide this potential flexibility at consumer level, rather than simply being a simple way for auto giants to spread the cost by sharing components across fleets and brands. 

The ID.Buzz isn’t alone. Mercedes has electrified its Viano model to create the EQV, while Vauxhall has the Vivaro Life Electric. However, both of these models share platforms with ICE equivalents, albeit a purely commercial one in the Vivaro’s case. VW’s advantage is a clean-sheet design, as well as a fertile tranche of good feelings left over from the collective cultural memory of VW’s Type 2 bus and its descendants. 

Volkswagen ID.Buzz reviewed

So does the Buzz rekindle this passion? Although long-wheel base passenger variants haven’t yet arrived, there’s already an ID.Buzz Cargo for those who want to forgo seats for goods, as well as two basic trim levels for the passenger model, the Life and the Style (the latter gives you that all-important layered paint job).

There’ll soon be a seven-seater variant, as well as a long-awaited camper version, a modern version of the cult 1950s and 1960s model and an electric rival to VW’s own California series. It’s not hard to imagine a pick-up variant, or an ice cream van or any number of other applications where profile is just as important as performance.

Not that the ID.Buzz is a slouch. With an official range of 258 miles (so just over 200 in real world use), it’s not quite as long-legged as more conventionally shaped rivals, but it easily sees off the other EV vans. Tuned for range and relatability, not out-and-out performance, the seating position is upright and far-sighted. Although you don’t quite sit above the front axle as in the vans of old, this is still very much a ‘cab forward’ design, and a good example of how an EV platform can easily adapt to a different body shape.

The cabin is well equipped, with oddment drawers, shelves and pockets providing ample storage space. The flat floor also opens up the internal space, while the rear bench folds perfectly flat with the dual level cargo deck, creating a generous double-bed sized space.

Aftermarket accessories are springing up, including items like Quququ’s BusBox-4, a compact folding mini-camper with stove, water supply and folding bed. Other innovations include German specialist ABT’s bespoke solar roof panels, which are design to top up the battery and provide power to onboard equipment. There’s also talk of allowing the Buzz to act as a standalone home power supply (something Hyundai’s Ioniq 5 can already do, amongst others).

What the ID.Buzz gets right is the blend of form and function. It’s that rarest of cars that attracts attention for its looks yet is also 100 per cent, undeniably practical. 

The low-slung battery pack dispels any lingering memories of top-heavy vans and campers, providing solidity on the road, even in heavy winds, and the Buzz can also pick up speed with aplomb, another entirely un-van-like characteristic.

Other car makers must be looking jealously at how well VW has leveraged its heritage without compromising the forward-thinking modernity of a pure EV. As a result, VW hasn’t just remade an icon, it’s also built one of the first electric cars with guaranteed future classic status. It took a while to get here, but the ID.Buzz represents mission accomplished.

Volkswagen ID.Buzz, from £58,915 (ID.Buzz Life), £63,715 (ID.Buzz Style), Volkswagen.co.uk

The Paris Motor Show used to be biennial – alternating with Frankfurt as Europe’s most important autumn car show – but that all changed with Covid. The 2020 Paris show was cancelled, the 2021 Frankfurt show moved to Munich, and so the Paris Motor Show 2022 – the 89th Mondial de l’Auto, as it is officially known – was its first in four years.

A scaled-down return to Paris

At its height, the Paris Motor Show spread out across up to eight halls at the Porte de Versailles-based Parc des Expos exhibition space, covering new cars and classics plus parts suppliers too. This year, there were only three halls taken up with exhibitors and only one hall that majored on carmakers alone, with French brands by far the dominant exhibitors. Chinese newcomers Wey and Ora, Vietnamese carmaker VinFast, and the well-known US Jeep 4x4 marque made up the very few foreign brands in attendance.      

Ten years ago, the 2012 Paris Motor Show saw visitor numbers of 1,231,417 over almost two weeks, which made the event the largest publicly attended car show in the world. In 2022, with President Macron attending on press day, numbers across the shorter, one-week duration were expected to be nearer 400,000. That isn’t bad considering the previous few years’ upheaval. 

Whether the format needs to change again is clearly something that will be discussed by the show’s organisers and exhibitors in the coming months, but when even French brand Citroën chose to reveal its latest Oli concept away from the show just a few weeks earlier and had no exhibition stand at all, it suggests the show’s format wasn’t pleasing everyone. Still, from a personal, press perspective, it was a very useful way to see a lot of product and people in one place in one day and in a manageable smaller space perhaps more reflective of the times.  

Almost all of the cars shown were powered by electric motors, most with batteries on board, although there were a few interesting hydrogen-powered solutions too. From the Renault Group, which showed new vehicles from all its brands, to intriguing start-ups including Hopium and Kilow, there was still much to impress. Read on for Wallpaper’s favourites.

Best of Paris Motor Show 2022

1. Dacia Manifesto

The no-nonsense Dacia brand showed the Manifesto concept, one that’s definitely worthy of inclusion in a best-of list. The Renault-owned Romanian marque’s declaration of intent for future vehicles showcased good value and function above all else. 

The Manifesto concept renders that idea with a bit of panache, desirability, and sustainability thrown in, featuring recycled plastic body parts and cork interior elements in a credible off-road package. Read more about the Dacia Manifesto concept in our interview with the brand’s design director David Durand.

dacia.co.uk

2. Alpine Alpenglow

Probably the most spectacular car shown at the Paris Motor Show 2022 came from Renault’s sportscar brand Alpine. The green-focused Alpenglow concept is a low-slung, hydrogen-powered, single-seater racing car inspired by Formula 1 and LMP1 (Le Mans) cars that produces mainly steam during its combustion process. Alpine’s forthcoming trio of road-going production cars will look a little more conventional, but should still be aerodynamic, light, and all-electric, and will be made up of a small sportscar, compact crossover and new A110 (currently Alpine’s only model). Put a date in the diary for 2025.   

alpine-cars.co.uk

3. Kilow

Tucked away in the hall reserved for auto suppliers, was a fun electric quadricycle delivery vehicle by French start-up Kilow. The name comes from ‘Kilogram’ and ‘Kilowatt’ to reflect two of its key attributes – its 357kg weight and electric power. 

Designed by Léo Choisel as a lockdown project, the programme has more recently gained the backing of French industrial business Groupe Savoy (with graphic brand design by Yorgo Tloupas) and features a wooden dashboard, polycarbonate doors and motorbike tyres as part of its pleasingly stripped-back and functional aesthetic. Priced from €9,990, the Kilow is due on sale March 2023.     

kgauto.fr 

4. Renault 4Ever Trophy

Renault has been leafing through its design back catalogue quite a lot of late. Hot on the heels of its 2021 5 Prototype (which will soon make production as the Renault 5 reborn for the electric age), the historic French brand’s latest 4Ever Trophy show car gently takes inspiration from the legendary Renault 4 five-door hatchback. 

This classic model sold more than eight million units over 33 years from the early 1960s to the early 1990s in over 100 countries. Again, the 4Ever Trophy heralds a production EV coming soon – 2025 – but this time expect a chunky and versatile compact SUV. 

renault.co.uk

5. Hopium Machina Vision

One of the pleasant surprises of the 2022 Paris Motor Show was the Machina Vision from French start-up Hopium. If you can get past the slightly odd brand name, the hydrogen-powered sports sedan concept was beautifully designed by Felix Godard, who already counts Tesla, Porsche, and Lucid on his CV. Influences from all those brands are evident in the Machina Vision, but closer inspection of the concept was rewarding. 

The quality of both the nature-inspired exterior surfacing and full interior detailing was excellent. Godard told Wallpaper* that the concept was about 80 per cent production feasible and that the first fuel cell model would be a Porsche Taycan-sized and -priced rival from 2025, with a smaller premium model to follow.    

hopium.com

6. Namx 

Another hydrogen-powered car unveiled at Paris was the Pininfarina-designed Namx. Its key idea was to avoid lengthy refuelling times by swapping hydrogen fuel capsules at roadside kiosks. The large SUV has six slots below its rear tailgate to take such capsules, each of which adds 40 miles of range. 

The stand only showed an exterior model for now, but the proposed kiosks and capsules have also been designed and the firm’s spokesperson said orders can now be taken for the vehicle, which starts at €65,000. The first cars are due to be delivered in the last quarter of 2025.  

namx.tech

7. Mobilize Duo

Renault has form for creating tiny tandem city transport – like the 2012 Twizy – and its new sub-brand Mobilize showed its latest idea in the form of the Duo concept. The all-electric scissor-doored quadricycle seats two people in tandem (like the Twizy) and is designed for sharing as well as for private customers in urban environments where space is at a premium. 

Renault has big plans for Mobilize, which it believes could deliver 20-25 per cent of the group’s turnover by 2030. 

mobilize.com

We’ve written before about how the Romanian brand Dacia has carved itself a niche within affordable utility design, eschewing the ever-increasing levels of luxury that define modern SUVs in favour of a rugged, low-cost aesthetic. Cars like the Duster and the ultra-functional Jogger are a welcome departure from the industry’s relentless emphasis on premium materials and finishes. 

The company – a sub-brand of Renault – continues to strike out on its own, finding a sweet spot in amongst the fiercely competitive volume car-making business. This week saw another bold design statement in the shape of Dacia’s Manifesto concept car, designed to explore how the company can go further while retaining its essential DNA.

‘We’ve redefined the company’s brand pillars,’ says design director David Durand. ‘There are now three components: essential but cool; robust and outdoor; and eco-smart.’

This car is a concept, pure and simple, with no ambition for a road-going version. That’s not to say that elements of the design and proportions might not be carried over into future Dacia models, as well as some of the interior and exterior details and – most likely – the materials palette. Durand set his design team the challenge to push the brand values to the extremes. 

‘For us, it’s been interesting as it’s a way of experimenting with the focus on outdoor activities,’ says Durand. Both Duster and Stepway are rugged, off-road capable cars, SUVs for the post-SUV era, that have found favour in rural areas and with those who genuinely need a competent, go-anywhere car without the expense or weight of a luxury, gadget-laden interior. 

At 3.6m long, the Manifesto is ultra-compact. ‘Essential is a good word,’ the designer says. ‘With our products, we’re always looking to see what we can take away.’ The concept goes to extremes – there are no doors or windscreen, and forward illumination is provided by a single central headlight that can be removed and used as a torch. 

‘The goal was to create a car to support outdoor activities like camping, rock climbing, forest ranging,’ says Durand, pointing out that Dacia is one of the sponsors of the annual UTMB trail-running event around Mont Blanc. ‘We don’t care too much about performance,’ he adds. ‘We wanted this car to be light, agile, and able to go anywhere.’

If you could ever get behind the wheel, the elements would certainly be present, one of the reasons the concept has gone with a wipe-clean approach to the interior. 

One of the primary materials is a new kind of recycled plastic, dubbed ‘Starkle’, developed by Dacia in collaboration with its suppliers and which will hopefully be seen in production cars soon.

This plastic is used for the dashboard, complete with tell-tale flecks of recycled material. The solid material also hides nicks and scratches. 

The Manifesto concept also has airless tyres, another technology on the verge of entering the mainstream. ‘You don’t need to carry a spare,’ Durand points out. ‘They’re designed to last the lifecycle of the car and then they can be recycled.’ By reducing all infotainment down to your own smartphone, the concept’s interior is exceptionally minimal, with the addition of cork surfaces that you can pin physical maps – ‘when you’re away from mobile signal’, according to Durand. 

Dacia has also developed a modular accessory system, ‘u-clip’, which features a range of gadgets that can be placed in various places around the interior, with the idea that you take your water bottle and cupholder with you when you upgrade to your next car.

Little ideas like this could well come to fruition in the next generation of production cars. 

Durand won’t be drawn on the powerplant, saying that this kind of car could be full electric or hybrid, with the ability to serve as a portable powerplant for tools – the rear deck can even double as a workbench.

Above the passenger compartment is a modular drilled metal roof rack, which reinforces the idea of the concept as a sort of automotive backpack. 

Seats are made from waterproof sleeping bag material, easy to remove, use, and wash. ‘Outdoor activities are really very strong with our customers,’ says Durand. ‘We’re coming up with ideas like how you can turn a Jogger into a simple camper van, for example, or tents that can extend the interior of the car. It’s something people are looking into more and more, whether it’s wild camping, festivals, or even visiting friends.’ 

Above all, the Manifesto concept captures a sense of endless possibilities, proving that Dacia is not afraid to go out on a limb.  

INFORMATION

dacia.co.uk

This spectacular show car has been created in collaboration between the French designer Pierre Gonalons and Renault’s design team. The Renault 5 launched in 1972, an ultra-compact hatchback that evolved the style of the popular Renault 4 with a cleaner, crisper aesthetic. Designed by Michel Boué, ‘Le Cinq’ was hugely popular, quickly becoming France’s best-selling car.

Over two generations and 24 years, some 5.5 million cars were sold, ensuring it has a place as an enduring piece of classic mass-market design. 

To mark the 50th anniversary of the Renault 5 – and also to help prepare the ground for a new, all-electric 5 model in the next couple of years – Renault has teamed up with the French designer Pierre Gonalons to create a unique one-off version of the original car.

Starting with a 1970s-era Renault 5, the designer worked alongside Renault Design’s Colours & Trims team to completely overhaul the style and stance of Boué’s inspirational shape. 

‘It was about celebrating this timeless design,’ says Gonalons. ‘The Renault 5 was a revolution in form when it was launched. It’s a very beautiful design object, with very lean lines.

‘It was never about status, but about symbolising the freedom of the era. I thought it was important to keep this spirit.’ 

Resplendent in a matt pink finish with gold accents, the Renault 5 Diamant draws on Gonalons’ expansive knowledge and love for the decorative arts. As the name suggests, fine jewellery is one of the biggest sources of visual inspiration. While the silhouette is identical to the 1970s original, the detail design is noticeably different, with key elements such as the mirrors, lights, instruments, and steering wheel transformed using entirely different – and unexpected – materials. 

Under the bonnet things are also new, with the original modest engine replaced by an electric powertrain. Gonalons worked with François Farion, Renault Colour & Trim director, who describes the Diamant as an ‘emotional jolt’. ‘Pierre pays a lot of attention to detail,’ he adds. ‘He is extremely sensitive to the references and meaning in each element.’ 

‘The very first editions of the Renault 5 came in orange,’ says Gonalons. ‘This was new, suggestive, and even a forbidden colour for the age. In 2022, I think pink has the same connotations, certainly within the car industry.’

The Diamant’s bodywork has a meticulously crafted finish, created by combining three layers of paint, starting with golden pigments on a pink base and then covered with frosted varnish to create sparkling gold effects in sunlight and appear blue in the dark. 

The pared-back approach continues through to the interior. Controls such as door handles and window winders are truncated brass spheres, gilded in pale gold, whilst the extraordinary steering wheel is marble on carbon. Not only does it reference Gonalons’ own ‘Loggia’ chair, but the designer says the twisting form evokes winding city streets or the diagram of a racetrack.

‘The wheel makes the biggest impact,’ he says, admitting that ‘marble is a very surrealist choice. But then it’s part of my design universe. I like things that are not what they seem.’ 

Gonalons teamed up with many experts and suppliers from his experience with building bespoke furniture. That wheel, together with the interior storage compartment, is fashioned from French Grand Antique d’Aubert marble, which was recycled by Mineral Expertise and then cast into tubes.

Textile manufacturer Métaphores created the fabric for the seats, while there are Pinton mohair wool carpets, and gilded details by Parisian atelier Bertin-Aubert, an artisanal specialist founded in 1936. The dashboard incorporates a phone dock to supplement the three minimalist dials (speed, battery charge, and time), surrounded by horsehair fabric hand-woven by Le Crin. 

‘My approach is to be as serious about strict design as I am about fantasy,’ he admits. ‘They are both treated the same way. The Diamant is a balance between clean design and fantastical, almost surrealist, details.

‘For the handles, I was inspired by earrings. The jewel-style front lights, which stand proud of the bodywork and new gridded grille, are like emerald-cut diamonds in a clasp, but also reference spotlights on a rally car.’ The Renault 5 was an acclaimed racing car in its day.) 

Other delightful details can be spotted in every corner. Renault’s famous logo has been a diamond since 1925 but was overhauled last year by Gilles Vidal, VP, Renault Brand, Design. The aptly named Diamant’s logo incorporates Pierre Gonalons’ initials into the geometric form, with gold letters intertwined into the silver. 

On the wheel, the hubcaps are finished with a striking sun detail. This references the historic ironwork adorning the façades of Paris’ Place Vendôme, a hub of French luxury design culture. ‘It’s a symbol of luxury,’ says Gonalons, but it’s also a tribute to French decorative arts, from Louis XIV, to Elsa Schiaparelli, to Thierry Mugler.’ 

Gonalons set up his own studio at the age of just 23, since when he has specialised in elegant modern furniture and fittings, including pieces for Paris’ Maison Dentsu, high-end retail spaces, installations, and hospitality design. His next project for Renault will involve dipping a toe in the metaverse, producing virtual designs that will be sold.

The Renault 5 Diamant will remain a one-off, eventually being auctioned for Renault’s Give Me 5 CSR project. ‘The story will continue,’ Gonalons says. Renault is also in the midst of an overhaul. Fifty years after the original 5, a new model will soon break cover. Evoking the original’s sharp proportions, Renault hopes it will be the brand’s equivalent of the Fiat 500 and Mini Cooper. 

The Diamant follows Mathieu Lehanneur’s transformation of an original Renault 4 into a ‘mobile hotel room’, a conceptual project unveiled in October 2021.

Renault is unafraid to mix art, interiors, craft, and car design, adding lustrous finishes, meticulous details, and knowing nods to culture both old and new in its quest to once again become a defining symbol of French industry and innovation. 

INFORMATION
pierregonalons.com

renaultgroup.com

The ‘room on wheels’ is a popular conceptual trope in automotive design, spurred on by the promise of autonomous driving and the sad recognition that we spend way too much time in our cars. Renault has approached the idea of cars as architecture from a slightly different tack, teaming up with French designer Mathieu Lehanneur to create new Renault concept car Suite N°4, a radical reinterpretation of one of the brand’s most iconic designs of all time, the Renault 4L.

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the original Renault 4L, eight million of which were sold between 1961 and 1994. Known as the ‘Quatrelle’, it was Renault’s people’s car, one of the first ever hatchback designs, with a boxy, spacious interior and simple, low-maintenance mechanicals. 

Renault concept car Suite N°4 reimagines an icon

Lehanneur has taken this functional shape and transformed it into a ‘mobile hotel room’. Based on an original 4L, Suite N°4 has been converted into an EV, with half the bodywork stripped back and replaced by polycarbonate windows, preserving the 4L’s silhouette and creating a light and airy interior.

Yellow velvet fabric covers the seats and dashboard, with a thick, ribbed chenille fabric in the rear, along with cushions and bolsters to create a space in which to lounge. There’s also a bench table that slides out from beneath the tailgate to provide a covered seating area. All this is juxtaposed with matte, cement-inspired paintwork, transforming the little car into a mobile but modest modernist structure. The polished aluminium grille is a nod to Lehanneur’s sculptural pieces. 

‘I wanted to merge the worlds of cars and architecture to create an open-air hotel room,’ says Lehanneur. ‘Even better than the finest palatial suite, the car is exactly where you want it to be, whether that’s by the sea, in the middle of a field or driving around the city you’ve always dreamed of.’ The multidisciplinary designer has worked on everything from boats to chairs, technology, art, branding and interiors. 

The Suite N°4 effectively blends everything together into a total work of art, one that speaks directly to the modern obsession with off-grid and extraordinary escapes, wild camping, and van life romanticism. Lehanneur’s Renault concept car design also has strong overtones of the fictional Altra camping car in Jacques Tati’s celebrated 1971 comedy Trafic. For the film, a Renault 4L was outfitted with a number of outlandish gadgets that turned it into a compact home from home. 

Renault’s design chief Gilles Vidal is currently doubling down on the brand’s history, emphasising qualities that will help carry Renault’s electrification plans to fruition. Forthcoming EVs will be underpinned by the revival of a familiar nameplate, strongly implying that the French company will have a much-needed focus on smaller, more city-friendly vehicles. First up is the Renault 5 Electric, a modern interpretation of the company’s classic supermini, which debuted in 1972 and was built in two generations until 1996. That’s set to hit the streets in 2024, with a bold concept preview currently doing the rounds (and seen in our round-up of outstanding concept cars).

The Suite N°4 concept, which was recently revealed at Christie’s in Paris and will be on show at Maison & Objet in January 2022, might not end up in the showrooms, but it’s a playful and coherent design vision that deserves a closer look.

INFORMATION

renaultgroup.com

mathieulehanneur.fr

So quietly, with a minimum of drama, Renault has established itself as one of the most accomplished purveyors of everyday electric cars. It’s done this without the need for ebullient figureheads, stand-alone sub-brands, or even OTT styling (unless you count the eccentric little TWIZY two-seater). At time of writing, the French company’s pure electric range consists of just four models, two of which are commercial vehicles.

The four-door ZOE hatchback is therefore only conventional electric car that Renault makes, although it has a couple of plug-in hybrids (the CLIO and the CAPTUR – apologies for the shouty nomenclature) and some other pure EVs in the pipeline.

The ZOE sets a very credible standard. Updated and enhanced since its official launch in 2012, the ZOE recently got a battery boost and some other revisions to keep it feeling current. The new ZE 50 model has a range of up to 245 miles, a zippier electric motor and more advanced driver assistance technology, as well as some mild styling tweaks to keep it in line with the rest of the Renault range. The interior is especially improved, with a tablet-style central display improving on the original’s rather toy-like dashboard, as well as wireless phone charging.

Outside, it’s pretty conventional – one of the small number of stealthy EVs that doesn’t broadcast its zero-emissions capabilities and looks pretty much like any other car. That’s great for the cautious consumer who doesn’t want or need to make a statement, but it also keeps all the elements that are fundamentally right about compact car design in place, namely the practicality and function of four doors and a hatchback. There’s a slightly bulbous, jelly mould-type feel to the bodywork, for it’s actually a bit larger than it looks.

Like almost all electric cars, using the ZOE is simplicity itself, with a special ‘B’ mode that maximises regenerative braking and makes driving a one-pedal affair. It is a substantially smaller car than some of its better-known rivals, which makes it well suited to short urban hops, but there’s still enough juice in reserve for a weekend out of town. At this point electric cars are part of the mainstream and even detractors can’t deny that range is becoming less anxiety inducing. Given the huge role that unassuming French hatchbacks played in popularising the automobile in the second half of the 20th century, it’s heartening to see the diamond badge grace such an effective and likeable driving machine.

INFORMATION

renault.co.uk

The Renault Clio is 30 years old. As one of the better-known small car brand names in Europe, the Clio has evolved with the times, from ultra-light weight supermini through to the chunky, solidly engineered small family car it is today. When it debuted, the Clio was marketed with a cheeky, slightly risqué, Gallic charm, although this gradually wore off during the car’s long adolescence. Now it’s back for its fifth generation, all grown up. The new design was unveiled at the start of 2019 and has now been rolled out around the world’s markets.

The Clio is a major player, the third best-selling car in Europe, holding back the horde of SUVs together with VW’s Golf and Polo. Right now, however, traditional car makers are arriving at a fork in the road - should they venture into electrification with an entirely new model or is it better to transform a decades-old brand name into an EV? The most common strategy is to hedge one’s bets. Without the clean slate approach open to Tesla and its ilk, existing manufacturers have to deal with long model cycles, entrenched brand equity and cautious customers. BMW invested big with its ‘i' sub-brand, only to appear to pull back from the commitment and choosing the path of electrifying existing models. As a reuslt, it’s taken eight whole years to advance from the i3 to the forthcoming BMW i4.

Renault also runs a mix and match strategy, blending hybrid models, pure EVs (the acclaimed ZOE, the eclectic two-seater TWIZY and a pair of commercial EVs for business use) with conventionally powered cars, including a number of diesels. For now, the Clio is in the latter category, a classic example of the motor industry’s slow but steady technological evolution. Compare the new car to the original Clio that proved so desirable three decades ago, and it practically resembles a luxury vehicle, with a level of fixtures and fittings that were simply unavailable in the spartan, plastic-clad 1990s.

But everything is bigger these days. Clio Mark Five has grown in size as well as ambition. It has a big badge, usually a sign of mild brand insecurity given the need to stand out in new, unfamiliar markets (something that is prevalent right across the industry at the moment). And the image of the Clio as a cheeky, compact upstart has all but evaporated, even though this new car is still good fun to drive and own. It handles deftly and is still well within the realms of compact, and the on-board equipment works without feeling fussy or intrusive.

The next-gen Clio will almost certainly have an electric option as Renault applies its EV experience to more and more models. The company is also rolling out a new style ‘Renault City’ concept store in Europe, hoping to create an Apple Store-style physical connection with its buying public. Recent concepts have highlighted a proposed shift to autonomous driving, focusing on a strong connection between mobility and architecture. In amongst all this massive change, the Clio feels a bit like a blast from the past, a traditional car in a rapidly evolving industry. Renault would be crazy not to let the Clio name live on and evolve for a more electrified world. It’s a personable car with a hard-won allure, something that is increasingly hard to create from scratch.

INFORMATION

Renault Clio (R.S.Line TCe 130 EDC tested), £21,655. renault.com

A new car inevitably comes laden with the baggage of its brand. No matter how effective, exciting or efficient a new model is, we are invited to view it through the prism of the badge, what it means to us, what it means to others and what the company wants us to think. For example, a Porsche Cayman is a fabulous car, but it’s almost impossible to disassociate it from decades of Porsche’s often divisive image; drive one and you are automatically and unquestionably part of a particular club.

The Alpine A110 is as close as a contemporary car can come to being unbranded, its image scrubbed clean, its badge unfamiliar to the vast majority of us. Naturally, motoring enthusiasts will know differently. Alpine is a sub-division of Renault, and before that it was a standalone manufacturer, the Société des Automobiles Alpine SAS, dating back to the mid-1950s.

The original company specialised in transforming Renaults into racing and sports cars. In the early 1960s it scored a spectacular hit with the A110, a rear-engined road, race and rally car styled by Giovanni Michelotti. This compact, curvy design, with its signature cluster of round headlights, was hailed as one of best-looking French cars, and triumph on the track cemented the car’s legacy. By the time of the 1970s fuel crisis, Renault had stepped in to bail out the company and help the Alpine name live on, first in the A310 and then the wedgy plastic-bodied Renault Alpine GTA and A610, a quintessentially 1980s design that survived until 1995.

Alpine never did more than fill a niche, a sports car for eccentrics who weren’t especially bothered about badge recognition. And now the name is back. The all-new A110 arrives in a market that is shaped by image like never before. Still stewarded by Renault, this car has been teased for several years, with a ‘Vision Concept’ shown at the 2016 Geneva Motor Show. The production car debuted this year, practically unchanged from the show car, powered by a modest 1.8 litre 4-cylinder engine, and – by the standards of the modern industry – ultra-light and ultra-compact.

These qualities bode well, before you’ve even fired up the engine, for small, light sports cars are rare and therefore precious to those who still manage to find pleasure in driving. As well as being an unqualified aesthetic success, the A110 is also a superb car to pilot, with a sparky engine, direct, precise steering and firm but never harsh and uncomfortable ride.

On wide open country roads the little engine pushes the lightweight car with spirited verve, with near perfect balance allowing you to dive into tight corners and slingshot out of them. Unless you’re really pushing on the Alpine also manages to deliver respectable fuel economy, while its size also makes it easy to handle and park around town.

All in all, this is a thoroughly convincing piece of design, a car that will appeal equally to die-hard drivers and those in search of something a little different. The Alpine badge might be little known for now, but in the A110 the brand has a sports car that will take it places. Future models are no doubt waiting in the wings, perhaps with more power and pizzaz (there’s even talk of a sporting SUV), but whatever happens, the reborn company has debuted in the best way possible, resulting in a true contemporary icon. 

INFORMATION

Alpine A110, from £46,000. For more information, visit the Alpine website

At the 2018 Geneva Motor Show, Renault exhibited the EZ-GO concept ‘robo-taxi’, designed for future cities filled with perpetually moving, non-personal transport devices, shared by many and capable of autonomous door-to-door travel.

Right now, the auto industry feels beleaguered, despite annual global sales nudging 100 million units, and ideas such as the EZ-GO attempt to blend ride- on-demand culture with the certainty of a familiar badge. Car companies are looking to fully join the ride-sharing economy.

The downside of this is that we’ll be making a potentially irreversible transition from using a public facility to a private one. For example, if autonomous vehicles manage to dodge the many obstacles in their path to public embrace, one casualty might be the traditional city-wide transit network. Instead, our streets will be filled with a cacophony of brands, all vying for our daily commutes. Tomorrow’s tech might be tantalisingly close, but it doesn’t pose a straightforward route for urban transit.

Read part one of ‘Next stop’, where we ask: ‘Are smart homes making us stupid?’

Read part two of ‘Next stop’, where we discuss the future of the medical makeover

As originally featured in the June 2018 issue of Wallpaper* (W*231)

By 1931, Villa Savoye – designed by Swiss-born architect and designer Le Corbusier – was complete. Located on the outskirts of Paris, the stilted structure featured a curved ground floor level, modelled on the turning circle of a car, which meant the owner could drive underneath the house, park and drive out the other side with one simple steering movement. More than just a nod to Le Corbusier’s interest in car design, the house is a shining, white-washed example of the automobile impacting architecture.

Less than 20 miles south of Villa Savoye, Laurens van den Acker – Renault Group’s vice president of design – is standing proudly by his latest creation, deep inside the design wing of the company’s Technocentre. The slick, copper-coloured concept is called the Symbioz – derived from sumbiōsis, the Ancient Greek word for ‘living together’. For Van den Acker, the Symbioz is his Villa Savoye for the 21st century – a fully-electric, autonomous and connected living space for the road that he believes we'll be driving (or being driven in) in the year 2030.

Despite its futuristic appearance, the Symbioz bears all the hallmarks of a conventional car with four seats, the same number of wheels and a large, spacious cabin. But its purpose and function, Van den Acker insists, goes far beyond that of a traditional car. ‘No longer can we think of car design in isolation from the ecosystem surrounding us... we’re creating a vehicle that's part of one fluid ecosystem,’ he explains. Launched alongside a full-sized house at the Frankfurt Motor Show, the concept shows how cars can be integrated into our lives by becoming a part of the home – storing and providing power or as a mobile, modular living room, relaxation space or conservatory.

On the road, the Symbioz promises a Level 4 degree of autonomy – or ‘mind off driving’ as Renault Group’s autonomous driving chief engineer Laurent Taupin puts it – enabling the driver to switch off, sit back and enjoy the ride. With autonomous mode enabled, the driver can recline into a ‘zero gravity’ seating position or swivel round and face their fellow passengers, a layout popular with manufacturers keen to show off the full extent of their autonomous credentials.

Stemming from Renault’s brand mantra of ‘a passion for life’, the Symbioz car-cum-house concept may be more than just a glossy future-gazing exercise. ‘In our view, concept cars are a promise,’ says Van den Acker. Having been one of the first manufacturers to popularise electric cars with its ZE (zero emissions) range, Renault has a proven history of bringing new automotive technologies to the market. While consumers are unlikely to welcome their current cars into their homes anytime soon, the Symbioz – like Corbusier’s Villa Savoye – is an admirable attempt to bring two mainstays of modern life together in a handsome but practical package.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Renault website

In an unusual but refreshing collaboration, Renault has sponsored a competition with Central Saint Martins' industrial design students – rather than those from an automotive or transport design course – to imagine a future autonomous vehicle interior.

The winning project – a one-person wearable vehicle suit with a gesture-controlled, virtual reality in-visor display – was announced on 25 May at a special Q&A discussion evening with Anthony Lo, Renault’s exterior design VP, at the Goldsmiths’ Centre, as part of the carmaker’s headline sponsorship of the 2016 Clerkenwell Design Week.

Called Renault Oura, the futuristic design was the work of the three-strong, all-female international team of Lily Saporta Tagiuri (US), Evgeniya Chernykh (Russia) and Zhenyou Gao (China), who beat 25 fellow students from eight other teams after several months of intense work. All are in their first year of the MA Industrial Design course at Central Saint Martins, a college within the University of the Arts London, whose famous alumni include popstars (Pulp’s Jarvis Cocker), actors (Michael Fassbender and Tom Hardy) and product and fashion designers (including Terence Conran and Stella McCartney).

The judging panel – including Lo – appreciated Project Oura’s stripping away of the vehicle’s interior almost completely, bar the inside of the visor, and how this would enable closer interaction with the traveling environment as a result. The vehicular suit itself was conceived as a flexible structure of woven steel, carbon fibre and silicone suspended above spherical wheels driven by electric motors, and stabilised by an array of in-built gyroscopes.

'This has been a really fascinating competition,' Lo enthused, 'to see some of the brightest upcoming design talent take on the challenge of how autonomous technology might influence the world of transportation in the future. The final three entries all have great merit but we were most impressed by Oura because the designers went beyond the confines of a vehicle and created the most surprising concept.'

The two highly-commended runners-up were the well-researched SYEO (Share Your Extra Office) project – a mobile office with inflatable seats, a giant side-hinged clear door and an interactive picture window, pitched as an antidote to expensive London workplace rentals – and the colourful Renault Phantasy, which imagined a configurable three-wheel city car, inspired by product designer Verner Panton's late 1960s and early 70s work – in which occupants could change the interior space to better work or play.

The prize for the winning Oura team is an exclusive internship at Renault Design’s Technocentre in Paris, in early July. 

INFORMATION

For more information, visit Renault’s website

If we accept that people will probably use cars in cities for several decades to come, it bears looking at the genre with a bit more scrutiny. So what is a city car? In years gone by, it was shorthand for a smaller, more agile automobile that you could happily sacrifice to the bump, grind and shunt of commuter traffic.

Renault's new Twingo has all the makings of a machine for the modern metropolis. The best small cars have always combined clever packaging with engineering gusto. Alec Issigonis was able to squash the original Mini into its tiny footprint thanks to the transversely mounted engine that gave the car its seminal two-box shape, while the original brief for the Citroen 2CV was to bring cheap transportation to rural France (legendarily or apocryphally tasked with carrying a basket of eggs across a ploughed field). Fiat's seminal 500 achieved its snub-nosed silhouette thanks to a rasping rear-mounted engine - Dante Giacosa reasoned that most urbane Italians would be unlikely to need all that much luggage space.

The Twingo also puts its power plant in the rear, resulting in a trim silhouette with ample interior space (and a slighter smaller boot). The result is a characterful, elegant and competitive city car that escapes the rather babyish tropes of the genre. Of course you can still 'enhance' your Twingo with all manner of colours and stickers, referencing the 1970s era of car design when the Renault 5 reigned supreme (sold as the 'Le Car' in the USA) and cutesy limited editions were all the rage, but the Twingo looks best in simple bold colours.

There's also the option of docking your own smartphone with the dash to provide navigation and streaming or using the own-brand 'R-Link' multi-media system, which distinguishes itself by being simple, intuitive and fast. In fact, almost everything about the Twingo is dependably appealing. Most refreshingly of all, Renault isn't trying too hard to impress by imposing a self-conscious 'character' on the car.

The Twingo's big secret is that under the skin it was co-developed with Smart, so whether you chose the chic French outfit or the multi-coloured German kit (sold as the larger Forfour model) is very much down to personal taste. Utilitarian car design is very much a thing of the past, but the Twingo makes a fine job of delivering the bare minimum required by a demanding world.

Even so, our perception of car size has changed - the Twingo might look appealingly small in isolation but set it alongside any of its urban antecedents and it looks tall and chunky. But as a tastefully appointed everyday car for everyday life, the Twingo is very near perfect.

The big thing that puts people off buying an electric car is the range, which (with only a notable exception or two) is still only a small proportion of most conventional powered cars. For the novice, this 'range anxiety' is akin to driving around with the fuel warning light on in a regular car; you know that you can't drive forever, but you're not entirely sure when the needle will suddenly plummet and the engine expire. Although there are some who love to live in this zone, most of us find this frisson of uncertainty rather off-putting. 

The reality is that such worries are largely irrelevant. A week in the city with Renault's new Zoe simply halved the car's 100-mile range, proving two things: one, we often drive far less than we think - a fact borne out by plenty of research into real world car use, even amongst daily commuters - and two, the Zoe is an excellent alternative to a conventional car. 

Renault, like its sister company Nissan, is currently leading the world in mass-market electric car design, setting up a sub-brand of zero-emissions cars, Renault Z.E., that starts with the dinky Twizy and rises up to the large Fluence saloon. The Zoe sits in the middle, with a clean, neutral design, cleverly proportioned to disguise the fact that this is not an ultra compact car, but a mid-sized hatchback. Eschewing the fussy surface treatment of so many modern small cars, Renault has gone for clean lines and smooth forms, culminating in a charge point concealed behind the Renault diamond logo. 

Like all modern electric cars, the Zoe has plenty of zip, thanks to all the power being instantly available on tap. An 'Eco' mode takes this raucous edge off in order to maximise range, but in everyday driving the Zoe has no problem keeping up with traffic. At parking speeds the snappy accelerator doesn't allow for particularly smooth moving, and the hefty battery pack makes for thumping progress over speed bumps. 

Inside, the car comes with all the creature comforts you would expect, from climate control to a well-thought out dashboard interface and entertainment system. You can even hook it up to an app to remotely check the battery and range. Charging is done via a citywide network of roadside sockets, increasingly common in London. A maximum charge time from empty of 9 hours can be substantially reduced if you plan ahead and charge when the opportunity arises.  

The numbers still seem to outweigh the practicalities. Even though the Zoe performs beyond all expectations, it's still hamstrung by the raw - and unfavourable - economics of building and selling batteries. In actual fact, you're not buying batteries from Renault, but leasing them, adding a tariff of monthly rental fees on top of the purchase price. 

Couple these costs with the (perceived) stress of range anxiety and many people might dismiss this car out of hand. They'd be doing themselves - and the city - a disservice, for the Zoe makes for a very welcome alternative.

The sight of a dozen Renault Twizys snaking along Ibiza's mountain roads was all that was needed to distract the sun worshipers from their beachy reveries during a recent presentation. The tiny rolling pods were like props from a sci-fi film. Even Renault has taken to referring to them as UDOs, or Unidentified Driving Objects.



This being Ibiza, though, the attention was positive - the sunshine and chilled vibe complementing a non-conformist car. Twizy may not be so readily accepted on the more self-conscious roads of Europe's capitals, where it was designed to get traffic moving again, but here it proved a perfect run-around.



Twizy is the latest model in Renault's family of zero-emission (ZE) electric cars that already include the Fluence, Kangoo and, later this year, the Zoe. At just 2.34m by 1.24m, the two-seater quadricycle is available with or without doors; the scissor doors only partially enclose the car in any case. The more powerful of the two models accelerates to 28mph in six seconds and offers a top speed of just over 50mph (we managed 53mph going downhill).



The battery promises a 62-mile (100km) range in eco-mode and takes 3.5 hours to charge - the bright blue cord that fits neatly into the nose works with any standard 220V outlet. This makes it ideal for short distance travel, but in apartment-dwelling cities like London and Paris, charging the Twizy won't be such a breeze. As with its other ZE vehicles, Renault will lease out the battery on a monthly subscription.



Renault has shown restraint by keeping Twizy's gadgety look uncluttered, almost innocent. The scissor doors give it a tongue-in-cheek futuristic look, lifting up without effort or noise. The driver can see the road beneath his feet thanks to transparent plastic in the floor. The absence of windows creates a semi-open-air drive cocooned by Renault's safety features.



Seats are hard and upright, befitting a commuting machine, and the seatbelts wrap around from both sides. The compact rear seat requires some agility to squeeze into, but once in it's a snug fit - and quite fun for a passenger. Sadly lacking is any substantial storage space, just two three-litre bins on either side of the steering wheel and a further 31 litres behind the passenger seat.



Back in 2001, as Toyota was rolling out its Prius to unprecedented kudos and market share, Renault introduced its eccentric Avantime, a sales disaster but a cult in the making. This is Renault's second chance. While other carmakers have prototyped urban pods, the French marque is the first to bring an all-electric into mainstream production. With DJ David Guetta as its brand ambassador, it's clearly aimed at young first-time buyers, particularly in markets where smaller engines can be driven without a licence. It's this market that has turned its back on the traditional planet-polluting, ego-enhancing automobile, and Renault hopes to tap into that.

Energy efficient environmental solutions are hot property at present, none more so than with the motoring fraternity. With soaring oil prices and government backed initiatives commonplace, electric propulsion is seemingly the future.

See more of Renault's latest eco addition, the Zoé Z.E

This realisation has sparked ferocious competition between mass-market manufacturers to offer the consumer desirable zero emission run-arounds. As such, French motoring monolith, Renault last month announced the Zoé Z.E - the first 100% electric ‘Spa’ concept car, part of Renault's recently unveiled vision for a cleaner, more affordable future.

Having pitched not one but three all-electric concepts at the recent Frankfurt Motor Show, Renault is now honing its concepts for the market place. It's all in the details, apparently. Not content with simply saving the planet, the car manufacturer has also collaborated with L’Oreal-owned skin care experts Biotherm to create an air conditioning system capable of hydrating the occupants' skin while providing also a more traditional temperature control facility.

With over 50 years of scientific know-how in the virtues of cellular skin mechanisms and aromatherapy benefits, Biotherm's automotive debut takes the form of cabin-mounted particle and toxicity filters, ensuring a crystal clear in-car atmosphere. Most impressively of all, Biotherm has also developed a dynamic system that can electronically diffuse essential oils dependant on driver mood - rousing in the morning, calming returning from work, and awakening while driving at night.

The Zoé Z.E's green credentials are equally impressive. Renault collaborated with partner Nissan on the power source (Nissan's own LEAF is coming to market at roughly the same time), with charge times at around 4-8 hours. A ‘Quickdrop’ rapid battery exchange will also be available, taking only three minutes after locating an appropriate energy station: the next big challenge is a logistical one.

The production version of the Zoé Z.E is expected to launch in 2012 - along with production-ready versions of Renault's other conceptual designs. We can’t wait for our thoroughly efficient onboard pampering session, but also expect more brand partnerships at this burgeoning end of the market. As carmakers enlist sympathetic products and manufacturers to bolster the holistic impact of their wares, the roads of tomorrow could be a very different place.