A gear lever that looks like lipstick: the electro glamour formula is born

It is one of the most intriguing cars of recent times. Calling back to the past in just the right measure, style created in even the most minute details, but which make the difference between a hatchback for getting from A to B and an electro citycar that plays on style, wow effect and glamorous intermingling with fashion and the way of beauty. The new electric Renault 5 is all of this. Ever since its first appearances as a concept or outright last February at the Geneva motor show, it has been considered an icon reinvented. Now at its debut on the road, the impression has been confirmed: a car that is a play on colours, design quotations of reinterpreted forms and functions.

We test drove it for the first time, in the media drive reserved for members of The Car of the Year award jury, and the first feeling is that the Renault 5 is not just a car but a small concentration of ingenious styling details. And, we are not talking about sophisticated materials and other luxury things that leave time to be found. They are all good, even the Chinese (perhaps more so than the premium Germans) at putting quality leather, lots of technology and the recycled material panel that looks cool but is uglier than a pair of radical chic sandals.

Renault 5 e-tech is a car that you choose regardless of the fact that it is electric, it fascinates because it is iconically cool, perhaps as an alternative to the Mini, and it seems to say to Mini, Fiat 500e and Lancia Ypsilon: 'Girls, move aside. I'm here.

There is a clear reference in the silhouette and interior to the original version, to 1972, the year the R5 was born, but this is not just a retro operation: inside the 5 is a thought of car culture and design. The front and rear headlights are iconic. An interesting detail is the fake air intake on the bonnet, reinterpreted as a battery charge indicator light with a '5'. And the R5's transmission lever, a typical stick of Renault (and Nissan) signature Evs, has been reinvented into a lipstick, a Chanel-inspired lipstick.

At 3.92 metres long, it is a small city car, but there is no shortage of space on board, even in the rear, thanks to its 2.54 metre wheelbase and flat floorpan because the AmpR Small platform is native to electric. Inside, too, it combines modern elements with nostalgic details. The dashboard houses two integrated screens of the Open R Link system with Google Android Automotive operating system in the tradition of the latest Renaults. On the 5, however, they have gone a step further with interface graphics that take up the theme of the slanted 5 logo and the Renault lozenge. There are, thankfully, still physical buttons to aid the 10.1-inch touch screen. On board is Chat Gpt and the Reno voice assistant in addition to the Google voice assistant (with the unpleasant voices of the last realese). Android Auto and Carplay are present.