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Renault Trezor concept revealed in Paris


Its name sounds like a video game 12-year-olds would love and the logo looks like it’s from Tron, but that wasn’t futuristic enough for Renault’s pre Paris Show sneak peek of its new Trezor concept car, so they went a step further and “virtually” revealed it, using Oculus Rift VR headsets.

While making the world’s media look silly was a bonus, as they wobbled their heads around while wearing goggles to take in the multi-dimensional presentation, the real genius of the idea was that nobody could take a single photo of the concept coupe, which wasn’t physically even in the room (photos had leaked out before the event began).

The world will see the real thing when Renault unveils it in the flesh on its stand at the Paris Motor Show tonight (AEDT).

While a concept car with this much sex appeal, particularly to futurists and typical Tesla buyers - the Trezor will be an EV, and allegedly capable of 0 to 100km/h in under four seconds - is always a big deal, this one is particularly portentous for Renault, because it is said to represent the next step in the company’s design evolution.

That process was kicked off by chief designer Laurens van den Acker when he arrived in 2009, quickly reimagining the Clio, and he was on hand to talk up the Trezor (it means “treasure”) as a car that represents the start of a new generation, and “tells the story of love”.

We do cars like this to create a buzz and to communicate that we have a strong design vision.

The GT coupe’s design is certainly easy to love, with its sci-fi shapes, super-car dimensions and Jaguar-like rear end.

Kenneth Melville, a senior designer who’s been at Renault for 25 years, says working on a project like the Trezor is an expressive, exciting and fast-paced job for a designer, and a chance to shine.

“We do cars like this to create a buzz and to communicate that we have a strong design vision,” Melville explained.

“A show car has two purposes; to motivate the team by getting them to do something cool that’s away from their usual constraints, but cars like this also get everyone at the company excited, people become inspired.

“And they’re also a great way of communicating to the public about where we are and what we’re doing. We try to tell a story as designers, to make people dream, because that’s what we are, we’re story tellers.”

The ultimate story teller at Renault, of course, is van den Acker, and Melville couldn’t speak more highly of his inspirational style.

“Laurens has put his mark on the company, he put in place a vision, he said ‘I want the face this way and the proportions like this’, and then he let the designers work around that. He keeps us on track, but he lets the designers do their work.

“A car like the Trezor, its influence will flow through everything we do.”

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