Laurens van den Acker: ‘Retro model like Renault 5 is make or break’

“Designing a retro car is very difficult, because such a car has to give you a good feeling in one go,” says Van den Acker at the press presentation of the new Renault 5. “It’s a hit, or it’s not a hit.” This applies much more to a retro design than usual, says Van den Acker, because without the historical baggage of a retro car it is much easier to assess the car in itself and in a more nuanced way. “After all, the first question with a retro car is whether it can convey the feeling of the starting point, only then do we look at the design itself.”

Van den Acker should know, because he has been responsible for the design of countless Renaults since 2009 and since 2023, as Chief Design Officer, he has been responsible for all strategic design decisions made within the Renault Group. It has been proven in the past that such a retro design can be a hit or miss. The Volkswagen New Beetle is often mentioned in the ‘not spot on’ category, which was very popular for a while after taking office and then faded away. Van den Acker: “With the New Beetle you can see that it has been built over the Golf platform in a somewhat forced way, that it just doesn’t fit well. Moreover, the Beetle (on which the design was inspired, ed.) had the engine in the rear, and this leads to, among other things, a very small luggage compartment in the New Beetle. It’s just not practical.”

Many of the problems that the New Beetle had do not matter with an EV. Van den Acker: “EVs certainly make it possible to make a successful retro car. In the past, when the original 5 was made, there were much fewer safety requirements and cars had smaller overhangs. Because the entire car is higher nowadays, you also have to enlarge the wheels considerably to get the proportions correct. You cannot actually combine those enormous wheels with a combustion engine, because they will get in trouble at the maximum steering angle and there is simply no more room in the front.” Anyone who would have preferred to see the new Renault 5 with a combustion engine must therefore remember that the car would have looked very different.

A famous retro design that we look back on with mixed feelings: the Volkswagen New Beetle.

When a retro model gets old

Nice and all, but how do we look at the new Renault 5 if it is just as old as the original? Isn’t such a retro model always ‘the remake of’, instead of an automotive icon in its own right? Van den Acker thinks that is not too bad, and can argue for it. “I think people can just look at this car and appreciate it without the old Renault 5 in mind. We have already shown it to various groups, and very often it is considered futuristic instead of retro. I definitely think that this 5 will also age beautifully.”

Bright green is standard, but not always

Speaking of the appearance of the Renault 5: you will not have noticed that it comes in striking colors. Not the ‘Pop Yellow’ of the concept car, but the even more striking ‘pop green’ is standard. You don’t pay a cent extra for this, at least on the first two of the three equipment levels. The exception to that rule is the top model Iconic Cinq. It is not even available in green at all and for a very good reason: the Iconic Cinq has yellow upholstery and that combination is far from attractive. Unlike the Evolution and the Techno, the top version Iconic Cinq is not a permanent part of the range. It is what Renault calls a ‘Collections’ model, and within that series a new flavor of the 5 appears every year.

Economies of scale

Although there are of course some differences between the three versions, many things are standard. This applies, for example, to the LED rear lights with their complicated 3D structure, but also to the sports seats and the 18-inch wheels. This was done very consciously, Van den Acker explains: by making them standard, as a manufacturer you spread the development costs of these types of expensive parts over more cars. Economies of scale, and that is precisely why the financial picture remains correct.