And the days too, three of them as Gautam Sen checks out Renault’s chequered history

If you have ever been to Paris you must’ve seen the houseboats on the river Seine. Many are used for living in, but most do duty as entertainment barges. Renault, like many other French institutions, has a couple of them, to entertain. And it was on one of these that we had all been invited to at the end of the three days of what was labelled as the 'Discovery Tour'. Discovering Renault, that's what it was. And for quite a few of the journos, it was truly a voyage of discovery.
Something long overdue, as Renault's top man in India, Sylvain Bilaine, explained: “When we researched, we realised that France was hardly seen as a car-making nation. In fact the Indian consumer ranked Germany, then Japan, then South Korea and so on as car making nations, and saw France as a country better known for making
perfumes and clothes!”
So Mahindra-Renault, as a curtain raiser to the launching of the Logan, which will only be sometime around the second quarter of next year, took a bunch of journos to France for a detailed dekho at Renault. And quite a dekho that was.
Renault, if you didn't already know, isn't really a small player. It produced over 2.6 million cars last year. It owns Roumanian car maker Dacia and Samsung of Korea, plus it has this 'alliance' with Nissan, which globally makes the group the fourth biggest in the world, after GM, Toyota and Ford, and ahead of VW, DaimlerChrysler, Honda, Peugeot-Citroen and Hyundai.
But more importantly, Renault has these four pillars on which the company thrives: its history, which is one of the most glorious amongst all auto majors, its motorsporting excellence, groundbreaking safety standards that lead the world and its product strength that comes, partially from its alliance with Nissan, and partially from its design
and engineering capabilities.
Though producing cars from 1898, the Renault corporation was founded in 1899 by brothers Louis, Marcel and Fernand Renault, and their friend Thomas Evert. Early on Renault got into racing with Louis and Marcel competing in the city-to-city races of those times. In 1903, during the Paris-Madrid race Marcel Renault was killed, and though Louis never raced again, Renault remained very involved in racing, winning the first ever grand prix event exactly a hundred years ago, in 1906.
By WWI, Renault was into making not just cars, but buses, CVs, ammunitions, tanks and eventually planes, and Louis Renault himself was honoured by the allies for his company's war efforts. During the interwar era Renault made a variety of cars, most of which were rather expensive big cars, characterised by a distinctive front end that was nick-named 'coalscuttle' and which was possible as the radiator was placed behind the engine.
During WWII and German occupation of France, Renault produced trucks for the Axis forces. At the end of the war Louis Renault was arrested for his 'co-operation' with the Nazi forces, and he died in prison, under mysterious circumstances. Renault was nationalised and got back into car manufacturing, launching the very successful 4CV in 1946. The Renault 4, launched in 1961, was another very successful seller, and as Renault claims, the world's first two-box hatchback, though one must remember that the 4 started off with side hinged doors.
The Renault 5 from 1972 was the car that ushered in the modern times, with most compact hatches following the architecture of the 5. In fact, Renault is proud of being known as an innovator, and likes to point out the 'monovolume' cars like the Espace, the Scenic and the Modus as cars that were segment makers. Truth be told, the Espace was essentially a creation of Matra, who had first offered it to Peugeot. On Peugeot's rejection Matra turned to Renault, so Matra must be acknowledged as the true initiator.
And even if Renault has not been a major innovator, its technological clout is without any doubt. Look at its success in F1 and you will understand how it has been outstanding. For six years during the '90s Renault engines powered teams to the constructors' world championship. In 1996, with nothing more to prove, Renault decided to pull out of F1. But four years later Renault decided to come back into F1, and when in 2000 it decided to do so, it set 2006 as the target year by which it would be champions again. It managed that in 2005. And you will soon know whether it managed another this year…
Remember the opposition: Toyota, Mercedes, BMW, Honda, Ford, et al. All giants, all very technologically savvy, yet Renault, along with Ferrari, has been dominating. And this same technology leadership shows in the area of safety. The Renault Laguna was the first car that received a five-star rating from EuroNCAP, well before Volvo or Mercedes did. What's more, eight of the current ten models in the Renault range are EuroNCAP five-starrers! Without doubt, safety champion too.
For a company of Renault's size, the model range though is not all that extensive. Just 10-odd. But now with the alliance with Nissan (in which Renault has a 44.4 percent stake, Nissan's stake in Renault is 15 percent), and with the cars that are coming out of its Rumanian subsidiary Dacia and Korean arm Samsung, the choice of platforms have become that much wider. That was evident at the Paris motor show when Renault showcased the Koleos concept. The Koleos will be Renault's first SUV. It could also be the first 'pure' Renault car (as against the Mahindra-Renaults that we will soon see) for India…