Expect more retro Renaults that drink from customers’ “reservoir of sympathy”

Renault has had great success recently tapping into customers’ nostalgia, with the reborn Renault 5 and Renault 4 among the most anticipated new cars being launched this year. And it seems that this particular well isn’t even close to running dry. 

Speaking to Auto Express at the reveal of the new Renault 5 Turbo 3E – an homage to the French marque’s outrageous, mid-engined hot hatch launched in 1980 – the head of design for the Renault Group, Laurens van den Acker, explained how timing is everything when it comes to choosing which era to draw inspiration from.

“I have a theory that there is a window of opportunity,” he said. “If you wait too long, people will have really forgotten about it. But if you’re too early, it’s still not cool enough.

“10 years ago, we did the Alpine 110, and it was just perfect timing, because it's a 1950s or 1960s kind of car, and we said, we need to do this car now, because if we wait 10 more years, the window will be gone.

“So now is the time for these late 70s and 80s cars, because you talk to people [about the Turbo 3E] and they say ‘oh my god, this is my period’.

“I think in 10 years from now, we'll be looking at cars from the Fast and Furious the same way,” he continued. “We'll be doing Subarus, Hondas, Datsuns, you know, these Japanese pocket rockets. I think it grows with the people.”

In the more immediate future, the new Renault Twingo that’ll hit the streets in 2026 draws its inspiration from the bug-eyed Mk1 that was launched in 1992. The Alpine A310 four-seat sports coupe from the 1970s is also being resurrected in the next few years as a rival to the Porsche 911.  

‘Legendary icons’ and ‘future icons’

Renault has been much more willing to plunder its back catalogue than some rival brands such as Peugeot and Vauxhall, which have taken a more forward-looking approach to designing their latest models. 

However, as van den Acker is keen to point out to us, not everything in Renault’s line-up has been inspired by the history books. Instead, the company has a strategy of creating what it calls ‘legendary icons’ and ‘future icons’.

“The legendary icons, like the new R5, R4, Twingo and who knows, maybe others, allow us to connect people with what was the past in a fun way,” he told us. 

“You know how it is with the past – you look at it through rose-colored glasses – so you remember the good stuff, and forget all the bad stuff. 

“But there is a reservoir of sympathy that connects people and they have these types of stories like ‘my aunt used to have one’, ‘my father used to have one’, ‘oh I crashed in one’ or ‘we kissed in one’.”

Van den Acker is keen “to avoid getting stuck on a one-way street” of just making retro-inspired models. Which is why Renault has its ‘future icons’ as well, like the new Scenic, Megane, Symbioz and others.

“We will also look to the future in a very convincing way,” says the design boss, “and from a design perspective that’s really fun. It’s kind of like getting your cake and eating it.”

Renault will introduce a new “Latin” design language for its future icons with the next-generation Clio due in 2026. Van den Acker previously revealed to Auto Express, “with the Clio next generation, we can do very modern-looking, sensual Latin cars,” adding, “we can push the sexiness, the sensuality and make these cars look very desirable in a modern way.”

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