Renault Gives Twingo ‘Quick and Dirty’ Facelift to Boost Sales
Renault SA (RNO), France’s second-largest carmaker, will unveil a redesigned Twingo mini car in September, marking the start of an effort to freshen the brand’s styling to revive flagging sales.
The updated Twingo, which will go on sale shortly after being shown at the Frankfurt Motor Show, is the first test of Renault’s new design chief to impact sales since he joined the carmaker in late 2009.
The Twingo upgrade is a “quick and dirty” mid-life facelift rather than an all-new vehicle, Laurens van den Acker, Renault’s top designer, said in an interview yesterday. “We’ve tried to give the car more personality, so that you feel you’re connected with it.”
Renault’s share of the western European market declined to 8.4 percent last year from 10.7 percent in 2002. Production of the four-year-old Twingo model in Novo Mesto, Slovenia, dropped 14 percent to 153,599 vehicles in 2010, almost three times the rate of the European auto market’s overall decline.
The new Twingo is limited to upgrades of the front and rear end, “because the investments are otherwise too high,” van den Acker said. “I think it came out alright.”
The 45-year-old design chief, who joined the Boulogne- Billancourt, France-based carmaker from Mazda Motor Corp., said he has finalized the design for the next-generation Clio subcompact, his first complete overhaul of a Renault model. The vehicle, which will be premiered next year, has more “muscular” lines, he said, adding that the model will be unveiled ahead of the 2012 Paris Motor Show.
To contact the reporter on this story: Laurence Frost in Paris at lfrost4@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Chad Thomas at cthomas16@bloomberg.net
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