“IT’S THE BEGINNING OF RENAULT LIGHTING THE RETRO EV AFTERBURNERS”
If I were Gilles Vidal, Renault’s design boss who spent the past three years sculpting the new electric 5 into a block of pugnacious retro perfection, I’d be rightly annoyed that a wicker basket is getting more attention than the car itself. We’re in a trendy industrial unit turned events space on the outskirts of Paris, and the world’s media have just clapped eyes on the new 5 for the first time. Unfortunately, they’ve also just learned about 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 5 is as French as Édith Piaf smoking Gauloises in a bathtub full of unnecessarily smelly cheese.
“That was [Renault CEO] Luca de Meo’s idea,” says Gilles. “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.” Perhaps de Meo does have the bones of a designer because it was him, after assuming his role in 2020, who spotted a full-size model (see panel over the page) lurking in the corner of the design studio and said, “I want that one.”
This story is from the Annual Issue 2024 edition of BBC TopGear India.
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This story is from the Annual Issue 2024 edition of BBC TopGear India.
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