Renault has unveiled the AIR4, a futuristic, flying version of the classic Renault 4 to celebrate its 60th anniversary.
It comes as a modern electric version of the Renault 4, slated to hit the market in 2025, after the sporty new Renault 5 Supermini.
The French manufacturer said the show car was “designed for the roads of the future visualized in the air” and added that it “offers an innovative glimpse of what the Renault 4 might look like in another 60 years”.
The show car, made entirely of carbon fiber, was designed so that it can fly. Renault said: “Real-world testing could begin.”
Instead of wheels, the AIR4 uses four two-bladed propellers, one on each corner of the vehicle. The body sits in the middle of the rotating frame, with the driver accessing the cab by lifting the shell hinged at the front.
It is powered by 22,000 mAh lithium polymer batteries, which are sufficient for a maximum horizontal speed of 26 m per second with an incline of 45 degrees during flight to a maximum of 70 degrees. Renault claimed that it can fly up to 700 m with a take-off speed of 14 m per second, although this is limited to 4 m per second for safety reasons, with a landing speed of 3 m per second. Its propellers each generate 95 kg of vertical thrust for a total of 380 kg.
The AIR4 was developed with the motion design company The Arsenale and is on public display in Paris in the Renault showroom on the Champs-Élysées.
“After a one-year celebration, we wanted to create something unconventional to round off the 60th anniversary of 4L,” says Arnaud Belloni, Head of Marketing at Renault. “This collaboration with The Arsenale was a natural fit. The flying show car AIR4 is something unseen and a wink of how this icon could look in another 60 years. “
The original Renault 4L was sold over eight million times from 1961 during a production life of more than 30 years.
