Taking charge: How Renault 4’s tech raises the bar

2 minutes reading

Sunday, 11 Oct 2026 08:00 0 4 autotech

And when the time comes to stop and recharge both yourself and your Renault 4 E-Tech electric, it can replenish from 15% to 80% in just half an hour4, just enough time to grab a sandwich and stretch your legs – Renault 4 is always ready to go at a moment’s notice, so you need to be too. At home, a standard 7kW charger will take less than eight hours to ‘brim’ the battery, while a faster 11kW charger will do it in less than five hours.

Renault 4 E-Tech electric doesn’t just accept charge though – it can also share it out through the V2L (vehicle-to-load) function. This allows your car to power 220V devices, such as a charger for an e-bike, a kettle, or even a TV.

Smart tech means smart packaging

In the automotive world, ‘packaging’ doesn’t refer to something sparkly your car’s wrapped in when you pick it up from the dealership. No, the word packaging refers to all the bits you can’t see, because the way they’re arranged affects everything in the areas you can see, namely the cabin.

To that end, Renault 4 E-Tech electric is based on the dedicated EV platform, called AmpR Small, which houses the car’s battery in a reinforced cradle under the floor, which is designed to protect the battery at all times.

The real bonus is that this clever packaging allows more space and greater comfort for passengers. Plus, there’s a supremely practical 420-litre boot5, which has a load sill height of just 61cm – making it super easy to slide in heavy cases or shopping bags. Nothing else gets close to the versatility offered by Renault 4, as voiced by What Car?’s testers who said: “It’s not just the overall boot space that’s good, either; access to it is fantastic thanks to a very wide and tall opening, which is also very low to the ground with virtually no loading lip. It’s the easiest car in the class to lift a suitcase in and out of.”