Is it a bird? Is a black taxi?! No, it’s a flying Renault 4L show car!
Updated: Nov 30, 2021
To conclude the celebrations for the 60th anniversary of the iconic Renault 4, the car maker has teamed up with motion design hub TheArsenale to create a futuristic show-car – a reinterpretation of the popular 4L that can fly!
An automotive design icon, the Renault 4L sold over 8 million units across more than 100 countries over a production lifetime that spanned more than 30 years, and to celebrate, Renault has been holding a year of celebrations and initiatives.
The original Renault 4 was a simple, efficient and versatile vehicle built between 1961 and 1992. Former head of Renault Group Pierre Dreyfus once described it as a “blue jeans” car, and it went on to transport everyone from families to businesses to taxi drivers, while also giving the inspiration and opportunity to generations of young motorists to get behind the wheel.
The design of the ‘AIR4’ is a modern reinterpretation of the original icon. Made entirely of carbon-fibre, the AIR4 follows the familiar lines and shapes, but has been re-engineered to accommodate concepts such as thrust and lift that the original could only have dreamt of. Hours of calculations and tests drawing on generative design techniques and artificial intelligence resulted in terabytes of data, every bit of which was carefully modelled and analysed to fine-tune the design. With that complete, real-world trials could begin.
Arnaud Belloni, Renault Brand Global Marketing Director, said: “After a year-long celebration we wanted to create something unconventional to close up the 60th anniversary of 4L.
“This collaboration with TheArsenale was a natural fit. The flying show-car AIR4 is something unseen and a wink to how this icon could look like in another 60 years.”
Instead of wheels, the AIR4 features four two-blade propellers, one at each corner of the vehicle. The body sits in the middle of the rota frame, with the driver gaining access to the cabin by lifting the front-hinged shell.
The AIR4 has been imagined, designed, engineered and assembled entirely in France, in the heart of Europe’s first technology park in Sophia Antipolis, on the Côte d’Azur.
