2026 Renault 4 Savane 4×4 revealed! Concept set to make a splash as a rugged all-electric rival for Suzuki Jimny
If the small but highly appealing Renault 4 isn’t attractive enough it looks like the French brand’s baby EV might soon be offered with all-wheel drive and real off-road capability.
That’s what can be deduced from the unveiling of the 2026 Renault 4 Savane 4×4 Concept at the 2025 French Open tennis tournament recently.
The new R4 variant revives an adventurous name first used in 1950s on the Renault Colorale wagon.
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But unlike that car, the new Renault 4 Savane 4×4 Concept comes with proper all-wheel drive thanks to its advanced dual-motor powertrain.
Wearing a fetching shade of Jade Green Paint that’s combined with a weird, printed fabric roof, the rugged R4 looks more at home in the great outdoors than the standard car.
It even sports a set of neat front and rear overriders that get in-built shock absorbers to soak up any brushes with trees and rocks without doing any harm.
Engineers have also widened the R4’s track by 20mm, while increasing its ride height by 15mm for more ground clearance.
Helping deal with life off-road, the little 4×4 also gets a set of heavy duty 18-inch rims that are wrapped in stickier Goodyear UltraGrip tyres.
Inside brown and houndstooth fabric seats are combined with a muck-hiding brown dash.
Apart from declaring it has all-wheel drive, Renault has left us guessing as to what powers the R4 Savane’s.
While the regular R4 gets a single front-mounted e-motor that produces either 88kW or 110kW, it’s been tipped the concept will also use the punchier 110kW to spin up the rear wheels.
That means the dual-motor R4 4×4 could muster as much as 220kW.
With that level of power and a relatively light kerb weight, the R4 should be capable of a very brisk 0-100km/h dash of around 5.0 seconds.
The dual-motor powertrain will almost certainly also be used for a Renault 5-based hot hatch, possibly for a car that will sit above the Alpine A290 but below the unhinged R5 Turbo 3E.
Renault has refused to publicly confirm the dual-motor R4 for production.
Instead, it says the concept merely “demonstrates the potential of the AmpR Small platform to create a B-segment electric vehicle with four-wheel drive”.
With Renault execs believed to be building a business case for it behind the scenes, in Europe, the production Renault 4 Savane 4×4 Concept could be a natural all-electric replacement for the similarly sized Fiat Panda 4×4 still found in Alpine regions of France, Italy and Switzerland.
The Renault 4 is still to be officially locked-in for an arrival Down Under, although the Renault 5 E-Tech should touch down this year.
The retro-styled battery-electric hatch is thought to have been timed to land at the same time the New Vehicle Efficiency Standards (NVES) rules that come into place on July 1, 2025.
