“I want to keep sensuality in the design” – Renault’s Alexandre Malval on surfacing and aerodynamics

Alexandre Malval’s return to Renault at the start of 2026 marked a homecoming more than 30 years in the making. Having started his career in the OEM’s advanced design department in 1994 before leading design teams at Volkswagen, Citroën, Peugeot and most recently Mercedes-Benz, the Royal College of Art graduate has the responsibility of combining emotion and innovation to fulfil Renault’s ambitious vision. 

Throughout this month’s focus on surfacing and aerodynamics, Car Design News has explored how surfacing sits at the intersection of design and engineering, creating visually compelling forms that also satisfy aerodynamic targets.

For Malval, however, the challenge extends beyond airflow. Renault’s surfaces must also communicate emotion – preserving the French character that has long defined the brand. 

At Goodwood Festival of Speed, CDN caught up with Malval to discuss why a car should be ‘something you want to touch’ and why technical optimisation should never come at the expense of human appeal. 

Car Design News: You joined Renault back in January, how are you finding your new role so far? 

Alexandre Malval: It’s very exciting. It’s a completely different company – it’s so international with very strong ambitions. Of course, electrification has changed everything – but also the tools and design itself are very different.

When I started, we were drawing renders ourselves, with each taking from half a day to two days. Nowadays, we work with AI, Photoshop, Blender etc. The profile of designers has changed drastically. We’ve also gained a lot of speed – and a lot of fun.

CDN: Speaking of fun, how do you balance this fun French flair with aerodynamic needs – especially in this era of EVs? 

AM: Both are compatible. It’s a matter of how much you want to reach with the range. It also depends on the segment and the customer. Aerodynamics is real fun, three weeks ago I was in a wind tunnel for a car which was really fun. Of course, it does mean we have some constraints. Aerodynamics has the tendency to dictate a silhouette, so we have to be careful and fight against that. 

CDN: When you are designing a car, how do you create a classic Renault surface? 

AM: When I was a child, I remember how pure the Renaults were – the Renault 25, the Renault 5, the Twingo and later on the Renault Espace. First of all, before the balance of the car, it’s the silhouette that gives the character to the car. Then the surfacing comes next. This is something I want to add more sensuality and more purity to – because I want these cars to be memorable and human. This means the surfaces have to be quite pure.

And what about the interior? I don’t want too many lines that could make it look too mainstream – that’s my personal taste but we will see what happens in the future. It has to be a car you want to touch and that has nice volumes. This gives value to the product as it makes it look handmade and more human.

CDN: Why do you think emotional surfacing is so important? 

AM: Emotion in design is absolutely key. Renault is a very human brand, it’s a brand that touches the heart of people because the cars accompany them in their day-to-day life. They are practical, affordable but also beautiful. I want to keep the sensuality in the design. I want to keep the emotional aspect, as seen on the Twingo.

CDN: Where does surfacing fit into the design process? 

AM: We work with the engineers by computer first. We do simulations – we are thinking about implementing their tools in our design department actually. Once we’ve achieved a certain level of feasibility, then we go into the wind tunnel, then to a full-size clay model. After that we go in to make tweaks – changing the shape of the corners of the car, the spoiler height, and so on. 

CDN: From a digital tools perspective, how do you think the art of surfacing has changed? 

AM: The new generation of designers is quite different. I belong to the generation that used to build the clay model by hand from scratch, even doing the symmetry by hand. It would take a week to symmetrise a car and it would never be perfect. So, we used to really feel the clay and even take the tools of the modelers sometimes to sketch ourselves in 3D.

The young generation is staying in their comfort zone behind the computer doing a lot of Photoshop and AI, and once they're on the model, they're a bit lost. That's why I think Blender is useful because first they can, at least based on the package, build their sketch in 3D. And this is the first step to learn. Then we can mill it directly from Blender, and then we see what we have to correct, and we do loops and loops until we're happy. You know, this is the job. But having them doing their 3D is a big change. It really helps. But they're not all able to do that yet, so I'm pushing hard on that.