Dutchman to reshape Renault design

AFTER walking out of Mazda last week, former chief designer Laurens van den Acker has resurfaced as the incoming head of design at Renault.

Joining the French marque on May 15, Mr van den Acker will replace the long-serving and controversial designer Patrick le Quement – but will not assume full responsibility for the role until November 1.

Mr le Quement is retiring after 22 years at the helm of Renault design, leaving behind a litany of cars that have been both admired and scorned – and which some would argue have limited Renault’s sales growth in Australia.

Examples include the bulging rear-end styling of the Megane II hatchback, which forced Renault Australia to confront the issue directly in its advertising at launch late in 2003, and the radically styled Vel Satis luxury car.

Renault struggled to sell half the number of Megane hatchbacks it had anticipated at launch in Australia, while the Vel Satis was deemed too controversial to be sold here.

Mr van den Acker will take the title of vice-president of corporate design, and will report to chief operating officer Patrick Pelata.

As reported last week, Mr van den Acker’s replacement at Mazda is Ikuo Maeda, the chief designer of Mazda’s strategic design studio and the architect of the current RX-8 and Mazda2.

In other global design news, BMW has appointed 38-year-old Frenchman Marc Girard as its new head of interior design.

Mr Girard has worked as a designer for the BMW Group for 15 years, most recently as a team leader of interior design for BMW Automobiles. Prior to that he was head of interior design for Mini.

Meanwhile, Hyundai has named former General Motors designer Phillip Zak as the new chief of its design centre in California.

Mr Zak has more than two decades’ experience in automotive design, most recently serving as design director for GM Europe where he was responsible for Opel and Saab exterior production design work and “future strategies”.

He is credited with designing a range of high-profile GM models including the 2010 Chevrolet Equinox, 2010 GMC Terrain, 2009 Chevrolet Equinox fuel-cell vehicle, 2005 Chevrolet Cobalt and the Pontiac G6 show and production car.

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