Built to make you fall in love

Mr Cambolive, before we talk about cars: How would you introduce yourself to someone who doesn’t know you?

I am the CEO of the Renault brand and also the Chief Growth Officer of the Renault Group. Although I’ve been living and working in France again for five years now, I’ve spent most of my career – spanning more than 30 years – abroad: a few years in Germany, Switzerland and Austria – and then, far beyond Europe, in Brazil, Russia and Dubai.

What still drives you after all these years?

When you’re working hard to develop a car, the ‘aha’ moment is always when you present it to others – and when, for the first time, you’re driving not the prototype but the real, finished car through a city yourself. For me, that was most recently the case with the new Twingo: when my colleagues handed me the very first Twingo E-Tech, I drove it along the Seine from my office to the Eiffel Tower. And in that moment, you realise whether everything you’d imagined actually works: the feel of the steering, the acceleration, the visibility, how you perceive the traffic lights, how people on the street look at you. When everything comes together, it’s a huge, huge moment.

Can the driving experience of an electric car be conveyed just as well as that of a petrol or diesel car?

First of all, I believe that electric cars open up entirely new horizons in design. The electric R5 differs fundamentally from a traditional combustion-engine car because you can position the wheels right at the very corners of the car. You can work with new proportions – greater length, a wider car, new angles in the bodywork. This naturally opens up new possibilities for evoking emotion, because you can create a design object free from the constraints of the old world. If you combine that with a higher level of connectivity – for example, we have our OpenR-link system, an infotainment system developed in collaboration with Google featuring large screens and fast interactivity – you get the feeling of a well-rounded, harmonious car. Add the brand characteristics to that, and you have the right formula. But there isn’t a single trick. It’s the sum of many details that need to be harmonised.

Doesn’t a brand like Renault also need something like a Creative Director to bring design, point of sale and marketing together?

The customer must be at the forefront of the minds of everyone working on the car. What we need is for our designers, our CEO and our marketing and communications teams to be creative. This creativity must permeate every single function. To achieve this, it’s important to set a framework – something we’ve also learnt from dealing with our iconic models from the past: a framework liberates creativity. It’s like the difference between renovating a house and building a new one on a greenfield site. When you renovate, you take something that already exists and adapt it to the new world – and that is precisely what unleashes creativity.

How do you bring these four principles into alignment across the entire model range – and forge a distinct identity?

Customers don’t buy a range of models; they buy a car. That’s why we say: Our icons, such as the R5 or the Twingo, lead a life of their own. There’s no need to try and find some sort of common denominator with the rest of the model range, because ultimately these cars stand on their own and have such a strong personality that I would never simply transfer the R5’s design language to an Austral. Alongside these, there are cars that function more like a saga, such as the Clio or the Scénic. With these models, we try to create a sense of family consistency – primarily through the lighting signature and, secondarily, through the brand characteristics I just mentioned. If all teams work according to the same principle – people-first tech, electrified by passion, crafted space, designed to be loved – then I hope that, in the end, a family will emerge rather than a mere collection of disparate types.

Beyond its pure design, what is the real secret behind the R5’s success?

When we analysed why the R5 is so successful, we realised: its success stems from the fact that ( … )

→ Read the full interview in the new ramp #71 ‘Yabba Dabba Doo!’.

(Now available in German.)