Renault’s classic small car returns for the electric age, complete with a baguette holder
This is the new Renault 5 E-Tech and it might just have the single greatest optional extra ever. A ‘porte baguette’ to hold your favourite tubular loaf and stop it shedding crumbs all over your car. It’s a masterstroke in sucking the seriousness out of a new car launch and simultaneously confirming that the new Renault 5 E-Tech is as french as a Édith Piaf chain-smoking Gauloises in a bathtub full of unnecessarily smelly cheese.
“That was [Renault CEO] Luca de Meo’s idea,” says design boss Gilles Vidal. “It’s funny, we often think he could be a designer. We thought about putting a beret on the headrests, but that was a bit much.”
In simple terms the Renault 5 E-Tech is a new B-segment electric supermini, a replacement for the Zoe that ensnared cost-conscious EV adopters, but not hearts and minds. It’s also the beginning of Renault lighting the retro EV afterburners with E-incarnations of the 4 and Twingo coming down the pipe. All we know is it’s barely changed from the 2021 concept that melted our hearts with rose-tinted memories (if you’re of a certain age) and made you raise an eyebrow (if you’re whippersnapper looking to go electric). It will cost from just £25k when it goes on sale early next year and we want one already. With a baguette sheath.
Read more: TopGear
