The Designers Pt 10: Anthony Lo, Renault
“In 2010 we had a clean sheet to do whatever we wanted, but now we need to play more carefully”
“In 2010 we had a clean sheet to do whatever we wanted, but now we need to play more carefully”
In design, when you do something attractive all your rivals see it too. Others might go in a similar direction, so we have to make sure our next generation is different. To truly judge whether a certain strategy was successful cannot be taken from one generation of cars. It has to be sustainable. In my entire career I’ve never had to work on so many projects in parallel. We launched six cars in 2015. I’ve been at Renault since April 2010 and it’s been a very full and active five years. Due to the need for us to renew our entire line-up, we couldn’t afford to lose time. There was not time to decide, ‘er, shall we do this or that,’ we had to choose, execute and then do another one.
Renault’s Anthony Lo
Luckily our new cars are doing very well in the market. We’re working on a car that is very important to us now – the Scénic. There was a lot of discussion about whether we should do another one at all, because we have other cars that can replace it now. A lot of customers have moved to crossovers, so it’s not as trendy. But the Scénic is a good brand for us, it’s always been successful.
Renault Kadjar crossover
Even in the last year of its current life, the Scénic is still the market leader in France. Outside Paris you see a lot of families with them. We are continuing with it but need to find a twist, so you no longer see the vehicle as just a simple, functional van with a lot of room. I can’t say much about it, but I can say that it will feature something very surprising when you put it next to a Mercedes B-Class or a BMW 2 Series. It will look like, ‘wow! I want that!’
We need a good balance of innovation and something classic in the segment to fight. The Twingo and the Espace are two flagships but in different ways. The Twingo has a rear engine and lots of interior space, and there’s nothing like the Espace. I think we’ve captured some of the versatility of the original Espace but in a new design concept, still looking like an Espace, but tougher.
Renault Twingo interior
It’s not so much about designing an object as about being strategic. One example is how we approach trim levels in new ways, like through customisation, where you can almost make ‘your own car’ like supercar and high-end makers have done for a while. We want to offer new technology and good design that is affordable. We’re also under pressure from premium models like the BMW 2 Series and 1 Series, and the Mercedes A- and B-Class. We need to understand why customers are attracted to them and react. Obviously it’s the brand image, but then you get into a car with less equipment. In the Espace, for €45,000 you can have a car which has everything. But with a Porsche 911, you start at €85,000 and still need to upgrade to LED headlights.
Headlamp from a Renault Kadjar
We see a lot more opportunity. Let me give you an example. With our touchscreen HMI we can afford to eliminate a lot of buttons. Before you might have had 120 buttons (I exaggerate a little) and you had to find the cheapest way to do that. Now you have maybe five, so you can make them look nice and have the best touch and feel and keep the rest of the controls on the screen. This is changing how we design.
France is very Latin, and we want to be a very attractive and desirable brand, which is a French approach. The majority of the designers in the team are French. I think the Initiale trim level’s visual cues are a good example, like the wheels, badging, lighting and the graduated colour on the seat backs. These are already things that are maybe more French than you might see on a German car. We just have to keep working on it.
On the motorsport side too, maybe we’re not playing our cards right, we don’t talk enough about Formula 1 and the RS models – which have been ‘the best of the best’ for many years. We need to highlight certain things even more. Being Renault, we have to be the best-in-class for concept cars too. Collaboration is great – like with Ross Lovegrove on the Twin’Z – but it takes a lot of energy. Creating a car is complicated enough working on our own. But the Lovegrove project was interesting – we were attracted by his approach and it exposed us to a different audience too – lifestyle and product design.
Image showing the Renault Megane’s light signatures
In 2016 five more cars are coming, so we have to work on getting the fit and finish right, think about some concept cars and then the next generation of cars, and we are full-on with two or three programmes there. We plan to have a little breathing space though, and we’re always looking at the portfolios of young designers to see if there is a good fit.
Why would talented designers choose to work for Renault? Every designer in my team has an equal chance of working on any project. It’s an internal competition and anyone could get to work on the next Captur or Paris concept car. We’ve got attractive locations, too. Apart from our Paris headquarters we have studios in São Paulo, Bucharest, Mumbai, Beijing and Seoul. We are very open- minded. We don’t choose a sketch because we like it personally, and we are not fixed on a certain design strategy, so you don’t have to sketch in the same style when you join us. We want to see what you, as a young designer, do differently.
Anthony Lo
Role VP exterior design, Renault
Age 51
Nationality Hong Kongese
Location Guyancourt, France
Education Hong Kong Polytechnic University and RCA, UK
Anthony’s cars of 2015
Concept
1. Porsche Mission E
2. Nissan Gripz
3. Peugeot Fractal
Production
1. Skoda Superb
2. Volvo S90
3. Jaguar F-Pace
Car Design Review 3
This interview is taken from the Car Design Review 3 yearbook. Published annually by the writers of Car Design News, the book rounds up all of the major car-design trends seen in the past 12 months, counts down the best production and concept car designs of the year and features interviews with 18 of the best car designers working today, plus an in-depth interview with Syd Mead, this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award winner.