The Renault Estafette is back!

To illustrate its vision of the utility vehicle of tomorrow, Renault has decided to resurrect its famous Estafette, born in 1959.

We recently presented Flexis, a joint venture founded by Renault, Volvo, and CMA CGM Group to address the challenges of energy transition and last-mile logistics of tomorrow. And what better than a beautiful image to shine a light on a new project? Simply a concept car.

Designed to operate in cities with zero emissions, this Estafette Concept is a compact and spacious 100% electric utility vehicle offering the loading capacity of a Trafic L1H2 in a Kangoo-sized format. Beyond being a highly successful stylistic exercise, this “utility concept” is also a great way to showcase the new FlexEVan electric utility vehicle platform developed by Flexis.

Estafette Concept shares more with its ancestor than just volumes dedicated to professionals. The original Estafette built its success on an architecture with all components placed at the front, with the engine and transmission positioned in front of the driver’s cabin to maximize the loading space. A modern reinterpretation of horses pulling a cart, showing that the automotive industry hasn’t invented everything. The new iteration, 65 years later, emphasizes compactness. This Estafette of the future benefits from an electric architecture that allows for exceptional modularity, with electrical components that can be placed almost anywhere in the structure, at the discretion of engineers and designers. Whether it’s batteries, motors, or cooling elements, it ultimately resembles a giant Lego set. It thus offers an optimized interior space despite contained exterior dimensions. There’s certainly a bit more innovation to recognize here.

So is it just a stylistic exercise? Absolutely not, as Renault promises that the Estafette Concept will lead to a production vehicle within two years.

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