New commercial Renault 4 looks vantastic
Coming to your local artisan food festival soon (maybe)
It feels like Renault’s electric reinvention (they say Renaulution; we’d rather not) knows no bounds right now. The return of retro icons has been a hit; the sole Alpine EV seen so far has been received very well. The Scenic is back, and it’s great. Next thing you know, there will be a Safrane and a Sport Spider. But not before Renault has embraced commercial vehicles with this, the 4 E-Tech electric van.
No clever branding or buzzword required this time - it’s a 4, with larger loadspace rather than rear seats. Which feels very appropriate for a car that resurrects a nameplate famous for its practicality; Renault Chairman Pierre Dreyfus apparently said “Give me some volume!” back in the early '60s, and the 4 is the car that resulted a few years later. The interior space was a big part of the appeal to ‘families and professionals’, according to Reanult. So a van makes some sense, in much the same way that the 4 Savane concept (we’ll keep our fingers crossed for the real thing) does as well, inspired as it is by an original version. Nothing sells quite like heritage right now, which Renault is only too aware of.
So the 4 E-Tech commercial vehicle is nothing if not back to basics in the most traditional sense of, well, a van. There’s 1,045 litres of space behind the front row and a load length of 1.2m, with an underfloor cable storage area as well; the payload is rated at 375kg, well below the LCV one-tonne threshold, but sufficient to kart around an awful lot of single-origin arabica. (Interestingly, Renault says the original R4 van, which this model ‘continues the utilitarian legacy of’, could carry 300kg, which is some going.)
The 4 E-Tech electric van is built to N1 light commercial vehicle spec by Renault subsidiary Qstomize, which is based in the same Maubeuge Manufacture Ampere facility as the standard car is built. Which is going to save on costs, for sure: the van range currently kicks off at €29,300 (excluding taxes) for the 40kWh, 120hp version, or a little more than £25k. A price for the more powerful variant hasn’t been confirmed, but orders are open now in Europe; suitability for the UK - i.e. the business case for what is clearly a niche filler - is ‘under evaluation’. It feels like there could be some takers, certainly - your business will never look cooler than plastered down the side of a 4 E-Tech…
Wouldn't a van at the very least have the rear side windows filled in?
It’s more a commercial than a van, like the Toyota Corolla commercial or discovery commercial which are just cars with no rear seats as apposed to something like the now dead fiesta van or corsa van which had no back windows
The Corolla has blacked out windows
As does the discovery
Not for me though, the mesh bulkhead would mean you can hear everything rattling around in the back
Mind you, I never thought I'd say this, but what would really tempt me is a reborn Laguna Coupe.
king 
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