Video: Renault R5 prototype prelude to EV

The Renault R5, a cult car from the 1970s with winking headlights, is being reinterpreted for a future electric model.

A newly unveiled prototype displays the immediately recognisable genes of its cult ancestor, with Nicolas Jardin outlining the project from Groupe Renault’s Technocentre where concepts and models are developed.

“It was a work of reinterpretation of the R5 and its projection into the future, to make it a modern object.”

He says the headlights became completely different in their proportions as well as in their design.

Jardin says the final version evokes laughing, slightly wrinkled eyes. As for the daytime running lights, rectangular in shape at the bottom, reminiscent of the additional fog lamps of the time, they fit into a bumper in body colour, as they did originally.

Finally, ultra-modern processes have taken over to reinvent the iconic look of the R5.

Notably, the LED matrix technology that allows the integration of movement by programming animations to bring the headlights to life.

This is illustrated with the welcome sequence, Renault says.

The car’s new logo lights up and triggers an animation that extends into the front grille. Then the headlights come to life as if the car blinks.

“Thanks to the matrix technology and animations in the welcome sequence, we were able to recreate the expressiveness and mischievousness of the original car’s look,” Jardin says.

“To be a worthy heir to the R5, the car had to become expressive and lively. We have succeeded in this feat with this prototype, a true object of modern design, embodying the Renault ‘joie de vivre’.”