Design head Laurens van den Acker says his job involves giving the company a cohesive visual style across the 26 models it sells around the globe. “Clio is more than the launch of a car, it’s the launch of a brand,” he notes.
“The reality is the last couple of years the Renault image has degraded, so I think creating a stronger face will help us to fight back. “I want everything that comes out of our studio to be recognised as a Renault. “The Clio is definitely younger and the headlights are a little bit bigger - like a younger member of the family - but the more higher up (the range) we go, the more serious they will get.”
He says the hot-hatch Clio RS model is visually more muted than the model it replaces. “I have a feeling we might attract more customers because of that,” he says. “I would be more interested in a Clio RS with four doors and more performance than a car that makes me look like I have a mid-life crisis.”
The same logic applies to moving away from the traditional RenaultSport approach of fitting its cars with naturally aspirated engines and manual gearboxes. The new Clio will have a turbo 1.6-litre engine mated to a dual-clutch automatic and van den Acker points out an auto will give the car broader appeal.
“The RenaultSport guys have assured me the performance of the Clio 4 will be much better than Clio 3 and that in the end is the most important thing.”
Van den Acker adds that Renault is also planning a range of crossovers and is looking at pickups, based on platforms from its partner, Nissan. “We are in the midst of creating a full line-up of crossovers. Unfortunately we are many years too late, so the only hope I have is we come in late but we learn from all the others’ mistakes and come up with a very strong line-up,” he says.
“The B-sgement SUV will be based on the Modus platform (a compact people-mover Renault sells in Europe), but on the other versions of the line-up we will work closely with Nissan. We’re forced to look for more synergies, it’s economy of scale that demands us to find ways to produce more derivatives.”
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