Court vibes only: Renault goes balls out with R4 Roland-Garros edition

Renault has taken the wraps off its Renault 4 Roland-Garros special edition, as the French carmaker celebrates its fifth year as a premium partner of the Roland-Garros French Open tennis tournament.

A ‘show car’ version of the Renault 4 Roland-Garros will debut on May 18, the opening day of the tournament, with a production version arriving in autumn. Given that the Renault 5 Roland-Garros has been a UK success story, accounting for 15% of all R5 sales here, we expect the R4 version to reach the UK shortly after.

The Renault 4 Roland-Garros is based on the Renault 4 ‘Plein Sud’, which comes with an electric-powered canvas roof. While this open-top version of Renault’s award-winning crossover is available on mainland Europe, it hasn’t isn’t yet available on our shores.

Like the R5 Roland-Garros, the R4 edition boasts a range of tennis-inspired details inspired by the 135-year-old Grand Slam event. The Glacier White paintwork is offset with contrasting black side pillars and roof arches, while the front wings get a dedicated silver trim and the Roland-Garros logo.

Elsewhere on the exterior of the R4 Roland-Garros, the 18-inch diamond-cut ‘Parisienne’ pattern wheels have a smoked varnish finish.  Their wheel-locking nuts and front and rear bumper trims are finished in Terracotta Brown, in a nod to the tournament’s iconic tennis courts.

Inside, the Renault 4 Roland-Garros gets several dedicated tennis-derived features, including a fully-recycled, light grey and white upholstery that “echoes performance attire”, according to Renault.

The front seats are embossed with the Roland-Garros logo, and the dashboard features a French flag offset with backlit ‘Roland-Garros Paris’ script. As with the R5 Roland-Garros, the R4 version’s steering column-mounted gear shifter is designed as a tennis racket. The wireless charging pad is finished in a clay hue, while another Roland-Garros Paris logo is etched into the brushed aluminium door sills.

The standard version of the Renault 4 Plein Sud is only available with a 52kWh battery, promising up to 250 miles of range and generating 148bhp from its front-mounted electric motor. This suggests that the Roland-Garros special edition will adopt the same setup.