Electric Renault 8 Gordini Concept Revives French Performance Icon

• Renault’s rear-drive electric concept reinterprets the 1964 Renault 8 Gordini.

• The one-off produces 266 hp and rolls on staggered 19- and 20-inch wheels.

• Public debut set for Paris before the concept joins Renault’s forthcoming museum collection.

Renault has revisited one of France’s most celebrated and famous small performance cars into a compact electric coupé, unveiling the Renault 8 Gordini Concept on September 24.

The one-off design study reimagines the rear-engined, rear-wheel-drive 1964 Renault 8 Gordini as a low, wide two-seater endowed with 266 hp (270 PS). Its rear-mounted electric motor preserves the basic layout that helped give the original its lively character and formidable reputation as a training ground for drivers.

This is not a production preview, unfortunately, and Renault has released no battery, range or performance figures. Instead, the concept forms part of a five-year program that has used unique vehicles to connect the company’s 128-year history with contemporary design. Earlier projects included the R17 electric restomod created with Ora Ïto and the Renault 5 Diamant art car.

Unlike those collaborations, the Gordini was developed entirely in-house. An internal design competition generated more than 300 sketches. Renault reduced those ideas to two 2/5-scale models before combining elements of both into the finished car.

The resulting coupe measures 4.12 metres long, 1.88 metres wide and only 1.27 metres high. It rides on 19-inch front and 20-inch rear wheels, with exaggerated rear haunches, squared wheel openings and a sharply and properly tapered nose. Six circular lamps recall the rally-prepared original, while flush rear lighting nearly disappears when switched off.

Its carbon-fibre body wears a deep, three-layer interpretation of France’s traditional racing blue. Gordini’s unmistakable twin white stripes do more than stir memories: Renault used them as an organizing line for exterior details and continued the theme through the cabin.

Inside, brushed aluminum replaces most visible plastics. Circular digital displays sit across a slim dashboard, while bucket seats use cool blue corduroy inserts inspired by the flat seats of the 1960s car. A red stopwatch control adds an appropriately focused detail. This is a wonderful retro design done with some restraint, but it still carries the visual spark that made “La Gorde” special.

The name brings weight. Amédée Gordini first worked with Renault on the Dauphine Gordini in 1957, raising output from 32 to a jaw-dropping 37 hp. Known as “the Sorcerer,” he became celebrated for extracting unlikely speed from modest machinery through instinctive engineering.

Renault design director Alexandre Malval said the objective was “pure automotive passion,” rather than nostalgia. The original 95-hp Gordini helped make accessible performance available well before hot-hatch European GTIs became a category, and drivers such as Jean Ragnotti honed their craft in one.

The concept will make its public motor-show appearance at the Paris Motor Show from October 12 to 18, 2026. It will later join Renault’s historical vehicles, archives and artwork at the company’s collections museum in Flins, France, scheduled to open to the public in roughly 15 months.