The New Renault 4 Starts At £26,995

Among all the praise being heaped on the new 5 and the excitement of the reborn Twingo, it’s almost easy to forget about Renault’s other electrically-powered retro revival, the new Renault 4 E-Tech. Here’s as good a reason as any to remember it, though – UK pricing has been confirmed as starting at a shade under £27,000.

The original 4, a rugged little hatch, was produced right through from 1961 to 1994, and is one of those cars you’ll still see puttering around rural France, no doubt with a driver so stereotypically Gallic it borders on xenophobic self-parody.

The new electric one wants to recapture some of that brilliant simplicity. The design lineage is clear to see: the single-piece grille that spans the front and encases round headlights, the distinctive ‘A’ shape made by the rear quarter panels, the three moulded lines in the car’s flanks that reference the original’s protective rubbing strips.

It also carries over the retractable canvas roof found on many original 4s, which now rolls back electrically. Called ‘Plein Sud’ (‘Due South’, apparently), it’ll become available on mid- and top-range 4s a little while after launch. It opens up to an interior that’s altogether more modern and has plenty of commonality with the new 5, with which this car shares a platform.

A standard 10-inch infotainment screen, standard across the range, houses all the important, erm, info and ’tainment, and features the OpenR system, which is built around Google software and systems. This is paired with a matching instrument screen on the mid-range Techno and top-tier Iconic trims, while the entry-level Evolution version gets a smaller seven-inch unit.

Here in the UK, we’re just getting the one powertrain option, a 52kWh battery powering a 148bhp, 181lb ft motor on the front axle. It’s good for a WLTP range of up to 247 miles, and sees the 5 hit 62mph in 8.2 seconds and a top speed of 93mph. Other markets get an entry-level 40kWh battery and 121bhp motor too, but that’s not coming here.

Slightly larger than the 5, the new 4 has pretty plainly been designed to appeal to the crossover crowd with those roof rails and jacked-up ride height – in fact, it rides slightly higher than the Captur crossover. It still has a super-tight 10.8-metre turning circle, though, and we’re promised the suspension has been retuned for extra-floaty comfort in the vein of the original. It could well be joined by a proper all-wheel drive version too, if the Savane concept is anything to go by.

And so, pricing. That £26,995 gets you the basic Evolution version, and you can add a nice round £2000 onto that for the mid-range Techno version. Another £2000 takes you to the £30,995, range-topping Iconic.

Right now, you can spend £150 on an R-Pass, which will allow you to get your foot in the door early and order your new 4 on 1 July. The rest of us will have to wait until 15 July, when order books open for everyone ahead of the first UK deliveries later this year.