Renault 5 EV "Prototype at IAA 2021"

As for what’s under the skin, the Renault 5 will be based on the new CMF-B EV platform, which has been developed with Europe’s B-segment electric vehicles in mind and will offer up to 30 percent lower production costs compared to the Zoe, which is going to be phased out next year. This is possible mainly due to the fact that the architecture shares about 70 percent of its components with Renault’s CMF-B platform that’s used by vehicles with internal combustion engines. The battery will be lighter than the one on the Zoe but there are no details regarding its capacity. As opposed to the Volkswagen ID.3, the electric motor will be mounted at the front.
 

Manufacturing

The R5 EV will be produced at Renault ElectriCity, formed from the Douai, Maubeuge, and Ruitz factories in northern France; assembly will occur at Douai, using components built at Ruitz and a motor from Cléon. The pre-production prototypes of the R5 were built in the Technocentre facility near Paris that imitates the manufacturing process of the regular factories. Over 60 units of the R5 were built for testing and validation purposes before large-scale production commences.

Alpine, Renault's sports arm (which replaced RenaultSport) will leverage Formula 1 experience in its upcoming electric cars. The company is putting all its efforts into ensuring that its future Alpine models will please the most discerning enthusiasts.

One of the main areas of focus is aerodynamics, according to Alpine F1 technical director Matt Harman, who spoke to Autocar. He didn't say which car they had already worked on (although the source says he was referring to the hot version of the reborn, all-electric Renault 5), but he did point out that:

Enstone's A522 aerodynamics group has just completed a specific project for Alpine road cars, and we're about to embark on another.

We're connecting these two [groups of] people, both in physical testing and in computational fluid dynamics. It's a really good collaboration, and it's good for aerodynamics experts, giving them another angle to look at, refreshing their minds. They really enjoy working on these projects, so let's keep them going. In fact, we'll probably expand our engineering expertise further into street cars.

The first of these new and very exciting Alpine electric vehicles is the hot version of the Renault 5, which will hit the market in 2024. Next will be the GT X-Over, scheduled to debut a year later, followed by the sports A110, whose debut date has not yet been announced.

In Formula 1, Alpine debuted in the competition in 2021 as the BWT Alpine F1 Team and finished the season fifth in the Constructors' Championship standings (below McLaren-Mercedes and ahead of Honda) out of a total of ten teams. He doesn't have much experience in competition, but he has advanced aerodynamic knowledge and innovations that will certainly be applied to street cars.

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