Renault started with a dare: at Christmas 1898 Louis Renault drove his first car up rue Lepic, the steepest street in Paris. The diamond badge came later, shaped by the bonnets of the 1920s.
- Country
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France - Active
- Since 1898
- Founded by
- Louis, Marcel and Fernand Renault
- Website
- Official website ↗
A bet on the steepest street in Paris
Renault’s story starts with a boast. By Christmas 1898 Louis Renault had finished his first car, the Type A, and he told the family he could drive it up rue Lepic, the steepest street in Paris. He did. Friends who saw it started placing orders, and his first business was born from a single climb up Montmartre.
Louis had built it at Billancourt, then on the edge of Paris, where the family had a house and he had turned an old boathouse into a workshop. On 25 February 1899 he and his brothers Marcel and Fernand formed Renault Frères. Renault Group itself dates the founding of Renault to 1898, the year of that first car. The brothers wasted no time proving it: in the 1899 Paris to Trouville race for amateurs, Louis and Marcel finished first and second.
The name changed with the company. It became the Société des Automobiles Renault in 1910 and the Société Anonyme des Usines Renault in 1922. On 16 January 1945 the business was nationalised as the Régie Nationale des Usines Renault, with Renault kept as the brand. The head office is still in Boulogne-Billancourt.
Medallions, racing cars and a horn
The first logo, in 1900, was ornate: the brothers’ initials, two entwined Rs, set in an Art Nouveau medallion. In 1906 it gave way to a picture of the Renault that had just won the first French Grand Prix, framed by a gear wheel. For a while around the end of the First World War, the badge showed the silhouette of Renault’s FT17 tank instead.
Then came 1923, and the first logo placed on the front of the cars. It was a round grille with the Renault name in the middle, and it had a real job to do. Behind it sat the horn.
Why a diamond? Blame the bonnet
The famous losange wasn’t dreamed up as a symbol. According to Renault Group, the round badge turned angular to suit the bonnets of the day, which were dihedral, with two flat faces meeting at a central line. The diamond appeared next to the round grille from 1924 and was definitively adopted in 1925. Renault doesn’t give the shape any deeper meaning, and its own history puts the choice down to the design of the cars.
The biggest leap came in 1972. Renault had launched an Art and Industry policy in 1967, and it asked op art pioneer Victor Vasarely to rethink the badge. Working with his son Yvaral, he drew a wider diamond with cleaner lines, built from parallel stripes, and the Renault name was dropped from it. The Renault 5 was the first model to wear it.
In 1992 the Vasarely shape stayed, but the stripes were replaced by a three-dimensional relief. That version would serve, with tweaks, for almost three decades. In 2015 the diamond on the cars grew larger and more vertical, giving the grille a stronger face.
2021: back to the lines
The current emblem was unveiled in January 2021 and rolled out that March. It is flat, with no lettering and no effects. Two diamonds intertwine through a pattern of lines, creating an optical effect and a sense of continuous movement, a clear nod to the Vasarely years. Renault says the flat design is easier to animate on screens and in a car’s welcome sequence. Design director Gilles Vidal linked it to the “New Wave” era the brand had entered.
It first appeared on the grille of the Renault 5 Prototype, a fitting choice given that the original Renault 5 had launched the Vasarely diamond almost fifty years earlier.
How Renault turned yellow
Yellow arrived after the Second World War. Once the company was nationalised, the logo kept its shape but was printed in colour for the first time, and yellow became Renault’s colour. It came back in force in 2004, when the diamond was placed inside a yellow square to bring out its relief and substance. The 2021 emblem drops the extra colour and lets the lines do the work.
Small cars, big ideas
Renault built its name on cars for everyday life, and several of them changed what French families drove.
Landmark Renaults, from the Type A to the 5 Prototype
- 1898: Type A. Louis Renault’s first car, with a direct-drive gearbox of his own design. It was the car that climbed rue Lepic.
- 1946: 4CV. Developed in secret during the war and launched in October 1946. It became the first French car to pass one million units.
- 1961: Renault 4. The first Renault passenger car with front-wheel drive, built until 1992.
- 1972: Renault 5. The first model to wear the Vasarely diamond. In the United States it was sold as Le Car.
- 1984: Espace. Revealed at the Paris Motor Show, a one-box vehicle Renault calls the forerunner of the people carriers that followed.
- 2021: Renault 5 Prototype. The first car to carry the new flat diamond on its grille.
The Espace has a twist in its tale: Matra first offered the project to Peugeot, which turned it down. Today Renault shares Renault Group with Dacia and Alpine. For more on how badges like the losange are put together, see how car logos are designed, or browse more classic car logos.
Frequently asked questions
Why is the Renault logo a diamond?
According to Renault Group, the badge became angular to suit the dihedral bonnets of the 1920s, with two flat faces and a central line. The diamond appeared from 1924 and was definitively adopted in 1925.
Who designed the Renault logo?
The 1972 diamond was created by op art artist Victor Vasarely with his son Yvaral. The 2021 flat version came from Renault’s own design department under design director Gilles Vidal.
When did Renault get its current logo?
The flat, line-based diamond was unveiled in January 2021 and rolled out in March 2021. It first appeared on the Renault 5 Prototype.
When was Renault founded?
Renault Group dates its founding to 1898, when Louis Renault finished the Type A. The company Renault Frères was formed by Louis, Marcel and Fernand Renault on 25 February 1899.
Rue Lepic to the Renault 5: the losange ledger
- Founded
- 1898
- Founder
- Louis, Marcel and Fernand Renault
- Country
- France
- Headquarters
- Boulogne-Billancourt, France
- Parent company
- Renault Group
- Current emblem
- A flat diamond of two intertwined lozenges drawn in lines, introduced in 2021
- Known for
- The diamond badge and small, practical cars
- Website
- Official website ↗
