Park Jin-hai primarily focuses on K-dramas, entertainment shows and actor interviews. Beyond that, she also pens articles covering the broader arts scene, with a particular emphasis on classical music, dance and various aspects of lifestyle. Since joining The Korea Times in 2013, she has made significant contributions in the realms of hallyu (Korean wave), industry news and international affairs.
'Human-centric innovation is at core of Renault soul'
Christophe Dupont, executive managing director of Renault Design Asia, sits inside the EOLAB PHEV concept car, being showcased during the 2015 Seoul Motor Show for the first time in Asia that pushes fuel efficiency to the extreme, traveling 100 kilometers on a liter of fuel, at KINTEX in Ilsan, Gyeonggi Province, Tuesday. / Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk
By Park Jin-hai
Renault Samsung design chief talks about brand value
By Park Jin-hai
The head of locally based Renault’s Asian design center has highlighted the importance of building values through brand identity during a lecture at the Seoul Motor Show.
Christophe Dupont, executive managing director of Renault Design Asia, said strong brand value built on compelling stories was the foundation of Renault’s global success.
“Renault makes cars to fulfill the lives of its customers during the various stages of their lives,” he said during an interview with The Korea Times. “This human-centric innovation is at the core of Renault’s DNA, which gradually translated into the vision that we make cars that make your life better.
“Typically, German brands are very much car oriented. They are about performance, engine and the car itself. At Renault, we are a human-centric company. This user friendliness is what makes the brand more connected to people and makes the brand differentiated from German competitors.”
Renault’s concept car strategy promotes the brand image by constantly showing consumers where they are heading in a shorter time than it takes to deliver production cars.
“We have already shown Clio, Captur, Espace and Twingo,” Dupont said. “And we have got another two cars and a concept car strategy that are yet to be released.”
Dupont, who took the helm of Renault Samsung Motors’ design studio between 2007 and 2009, came back to Korea in 2014.
Last year, Renault renamed Renault Samsung Motors Design to Renault Design Asia, making it the Asian design hub.
“Beside the main studio in France, we operate a network of satellite design studios in Rumania, Brazil, Korea and India,” Dupont said. “Today we rely on the Korean studio, the hub gathering the market intelligence in Asia, as we rely on Brazil for South America and the Rumania studio for Eurasia.”
The recently launched SM5 Neo and SM7 Neo were designed in Korea by Renault Design Asia teams.
“We have been looking after the design development of the next-generation SM5 and QM5 since the project was handed over to the Renault Samsung Technology Center in Kiheung two years ago,” he said.
Renault Design Asia also regularly takes part in design contests for global Renault projects and its design proposal was chosen last year for the next-generation Renault Fluence, known as SM3 in Korea.
As for the Korean market, Dupont said it was dynamic and evolving.
“I can see, first of all, the market is becoming gradually less conservative,” he said. “There are still predominantly SUVs and sedans, but I see more people driving convertibles with the top down, which I never saw when I was first in Korea.”
He said Korea was still a market very much linked to the status of a car, but young Koreans with more open minds were coming to the market, so there was a chance for more stylish cars in the future.
“We find there are more chances to introduce cars that are maybe a little bit smaller in size but are more about lifestyle than prestige and power,” Dupont said. “So we think there is a chance to import more models and we could be looking at more stylish and urban vehicles.” As for its new concept car that follows EOLAB, he said it would have a bit of “Korean DNA” as well.
“At this time, the next big thing will be linked to the evolution of Man Machine Interface, in relation to autonomous driving,” he said.
Recently launched Renault cars have the revolutionary MMI, which is based on the big-dimension capacity of tactile displays, which, like an iPad, you can pinch, zoom and scroll on the screen to access information.
“This is something that we are gradually spreading through our lineup,” Dupont said. “This technology has a little Korean DNA, because its software was developed together with LG.
”The future generation of MMI will be focused on user friendliness and simplicity of use. We want to deliver the highest level of technology to consumers.”