Are yellow headlights making a comeback? Renault 4 believes so

Are yellow car headlights, typical of French cars until thirty years ago, about to make a comeback? Renault seems to believe so with the Fl4wer Power concept seen at the Paris Motor Show 2024.

In reality, the detail of the yellow headlights, obtained by superimposing a coloured plastic panel over the front LED lights of the Renault 4 E-Tech Electric, is only one part of a show car that focuses on the nostalgia effect and references to the 1960s and the 'flower children'.

So is this an impromptu stunt to great effect, at least on baby boomers, Generation X and Y, or something we may soon see on the road? Let's find out together.

Yellow headlights on French cars from 1936 to 1992

This is not the first time Renault has revived the theme of yellow headlights and a recent example, besides the Fl4wer Power concept based on the Renault 4 seen in Paris, is the Renault 17 restomod sporting bright yellow light clusters. Evidently, images of cars with yellow headlights whizzing through the night are still fresh in the collective imagination of the French, a vision that unblocks the flow of memories for many.

Renault Fl4wer Power concept, detail of the yellow front headlights

Renault

In France, yellow headlights were in fact compulsory on all cars registered from April 1937 to 31 December 1992. They were later replaced by the white headlights fitted on cars sold in all other European countries.

Renault 4 (1961-1993)

In short, for over fifty years only French cars and a few others drove with yellow headlights and when they were imported to other countries, such as Italy, they were fitted with white lamps.

Do they work better in fog?

The reason for this uniqueness of the French? According to some sources, the first to request yellow headlights were the transalpine military who, in view of an imminent conflict and invasion, thought they could thus distinguish French vehicles from German or Italian ones that used white headlights.

Renault 4 (1961-1993), the detail of the yellow headlights

Renault

For others, however, the 'selective yellow' headlights (Wikipedia page here) were chosen by the government in Paris on the basis of a 1934 study by the French Academy of Sciences, which reported these conclusions:

"Observations made by users, and in particular by those with a scientific background, show that headlamps illuminated with yellow light dazzle less than those with white light and that, when two cars meet, the duration of the period of readjustment of the eye after dazzling is considerably reduced. Yellow light causes the light to reflect less on fog in case of mist or on drops of liquid in case of rain. It seems to increase the value of contrasts and thus reduce eye fatigue."

Renault R17 Electric Restomod x Ora Ïto

Renault

Europe chose white headlights

In practice, this data seems to have been disproved by subsequent studies, to the point that no other nation in the world, apart from the French colonies and former colonies, Japan and New Zealand, has ever adopted mandatory yellow headlights.

Even in Italy it seems that it is only possible to fit yellow headlights (low and high beams) on cars homologated before 1 October 1993, i.e. vintage cars.

The white headlights of the Renault 4 E-Tech Electric as standard

Renault

This leads us to the conclusion that Renault is unlikely to seek a change to the UN Economic Commission for Europe's ECE 48 regulation, which for cars homologated from 31 July 2016 confirmed the obligation to use white headlights, leaving a free choice between white and selective yellow for fog lights only.

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Source: Renault