Next-gen Renault Clio spotted for the first time

A legendary model for Renault, celebrating 35 years of sales next year, these fresh spy images show the Renault Clio’s future is secure for another generation at least. It’s our first look at the sixth generation of the French supermini, which could be set for a 2025 launch.

While camouflage hides our full view of the upcoming Clio, we can see a new-look headlight and rear light design, a truncated rear hatch layout, rear door handles hidden within the C-pillar and an almost BMW-like front grille. It’s worth remembering this is an early prototype model so features such as the side-exit exhaust will be there for testing purposes only.

We’re yet to see inside the new Clio, but expect it to take inspiration from Renault’s newer internal-combustion-engined models such as the Rafale and Symbioz, rather than the eye-catchingly retro shapes of the similarly sized 5 EV. 

Our recent first experience of the new all-electric Renault 5 suggests the French firm’s retro-inspired EV will be a hit here – but if you’re not quite ready to make the jump to a pure-electric car, Renault will continue to provide an alternative with petrol power in the Clio. 

The ICE supermini market has been hit hard in the past few years, with the Ford Fiesta its most notable casualty. Renault isn’t backing down, however, and this next Clio is expected to feature E-Tech hybrid-only power, doing away with the entry-level, pure-petrol TCe. This will help it rival the likes of the MG3 Hybrid, Toyota Yaris and the Vauxhall Corsa - which has recently gained hybrid power for the first time. 

But there’s no guarantee the new Clio will arrive in the UK because of the ZEV mandate. By the time it is expected to arrive in late 2025, it will have around three years of sales in the UK ahead of the mandate requiring manufacturers to sell 38 per cent pure-electric cars. The current car is Europe’s second-best-selling vehicle, however, and remains popular in the UK, so we’d be surprised if the new model doesn’t arrive here. 

While Renault has declined to comment on these new spy pictures, the-then Chief Technology Officer (now CEO advisor), Gilles Le Borgne, told Auto Express at last year’s Munich Motor Show that the Clio has a future beyond its current generation and will be sold alongside the reborn 5 and 4.

“We are working, as we speak, on the next generation of Clio,” Le Borgne said. “And that car will have some ICE engines because it will be on sale before 2030.”

5

Le Borgne stopped short of confirming that the Clio could adopt this twin-track approach on powertrains, but he acknowledged that the current Clio’s CMF-B platform and the CMF-BEV architecture used by the 5 are linked closely enough to make such a move technically feasible.

“You can have the same top hat, with BEV underneath or ICE underneath,” he said. “The general architecture, with the R5 and R4, is dedicated to pure electric, but the hard points, from an industrial design point of view, can be cut to make a combustion-engined car, too.

CMF-B was first introduced to the Renault Group by the Clio back in 2019. The newer CMF-BEV architecture for the firm’s all-electric models is undergoing updates itself that will in-turn be used on the CMF-B, to extend the life of the petrol platform and make it more viable. 

Click here for our list of the best superminis on sale in the UK...