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| Renault Group COO Carlos Tavares, right, hands over the Renault Design Asia plate to the group's local arm Renault Samsung Motors' CEO Francois Provost, after a news conference at the Renault Samsung Technical Center in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, Thursday. The group named the local unit's design center as Renault Design Asia. / Courtesy of RSM |
By Kim Tae-jong
Renault Samsung Motors (RSM) announced Thursday that its design center's status has been upgraded to lead design projects in all of Asia to meet the demands of customers in the region.
"We're extending the role of our design center here," Renault Group Chief Operating Officer Carlos Tavares said during a news conference at the Renault Samsung Technical Center in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province. "It will play a leading role in all products sold everywhere in Asia."
The RSM Design Center has been renamed Renault Design Asia, which the firm says will serve as a design hub within the Renault-Nissan Alliance. The design studio is located in the Renault Samsung Technical Center.
Tavares paid a visit to Seoul for the announcement, after a visit last year to announce a revival plan to reinvigorate the troubled local operating arm of the group. He once again emphasized the group's strong support for RSM and commitment to the Korean market.
"Fundamentally, the Asia-Pacific region presents enormous growth potential for the company, and the best way to grow in the region is to meet the expectation of our Asian customers," he said. "For that, we believe we need to better understand their expectations and by creating designs here in Korea, we can meet those."
He expected that the design center will increase RSM's product competitiveness, which will increase its domestic and overseas sales.
The Korean team at the design center will take over development of the next-generation of the SM5 and the QM5, originally developed on a new platform by the Renault-Nissan Alliance in the Renault Techno Center in France.
This can be seen as huge support for RSM and the group's confidence in the local unit's capability, as previously the team at the RSM Design Center was only allowed to make minor changes to cars so that they conformed to local transportation laws, although it was recently given full autonomy to lead the design makeover of the SM5 and come up with the SM5 Platinum.
Tavares said Renault Design Asia will have a chance to compete with the group's design studios in other countries to propose creative ideas for new design concepts in the development of new models.
He also said the group's plan for RSM is on track to boost sluggish sales, although he noted that there are a lot of things that still need to be improved.
He confidently said the market share of RSM will go up to 10 percent if all goes as planned, adding Korean customers will have many surprises in the near future, hinting at the launch of new vehicles here.
In this regard, he also pinned high hopes on the QM3, a compact crossover vehicle, which was first introduced during the Seoul Motor Show last month and will be the fifth model in the RSM lineup.
The firm has not yet revealed details on the new model such as its launch date and price, but Tavares said the group may allow RSM's Busan plant to manufacture the model, depending on "sales results."
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