Currently reading: Renault's future designs 'will not conform to convention'
Clio and Captur will become Renault's blueprint for future design process; new Espace and forthcoming Scenic will also challenge accepted design directions

Renault will no longer launch cars that comply to conventional design criteria, according to its head of small cars, Benoit Bochard. “Cars that say ‘business as usual’ are no longer part of what we stand for,” he told Autocar at the Geneva motor show.

Buoyed by the style led success of the Renault Clio and Renault Captur, Bochard said that in future all Renaults would challenge accepted design directions. He cited the upcoming Renault Espace, which mixes crossover styling with MPV functionality, as an example, and hinted the next generation Renault Scenic, due to launch in two years, would follow a similar route.

“We don’t want to do designs that mimic our heritage, but we do want to build on the roots of what our past designs stood for – our heritage provokes many happy memories, and we want to use them to steer the direction we will head in,” he said.

Bochard dimissed the possibility of Renault reviving some of the brand’s iconic cars from its past, however, such as the Renault 5 and 8. “We are not interested in revival,” he said, “just using the memories to steer us.”

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catnip 6 March 2014

I'm not quite sure why the

I'm not quite sure why the Clio and Captur are cited as examples as surely they're just Renault's version of a 5 door hatch and a Crossover, so nothing that radical there. That said, I'm pleased that Renault aren't following many companies with fitting a massive grille on the front of all their models, even though the logo is rather large.