When Citroën, a French carmaker, launched its futuristic DS in 1955, Roland Barthes, a structuralist writer, described it as “spiritual”. The car’s initials (déesse) said it all: “goddess”. In later decades France’s car manufacturers became better known for inventing sensible people-carriers and other functional vehicles that merely did the job. Now, however, Renault, another French carmaker, has tapped into that retro cool with a new runaway success: a fully electric remodelled version of the Renault 5, first on the road in 1972.