Renault design chief Alexandre Malval plans a recognisable car family, with AI as a tool
Appointed Renault Brand Design Director in early 2026, Alexandre Malval wants every future Renault to be recognisable at a glance while keeping its own character.
- early 2026
- five years
- 4
- 3 (Brazil, India, South Korea)
What Happened
Alexandre Malval was appointed Renault Brand Design Director in early 2026, after a career at Renault, Volkswagen, Citroën, Peugeot and Mercedes-Benz. His brief is to build a cohesive vehicle range that is instantly recognisable as Renault while giving each model its own personality. He says recognition starts with silhouette and proportions, which define a car's stance and make it identifiable from a distance, before details, surfaces and lighting signatures reinforce the identity. Renault design, he says, must express a DNA of cars made for everyday life, with expressive contemporary styling and technology that puts occupants first.
“I want to create a family of vehicles that are clearly recognisable as sharing the same DNA, with common defining characteristics, while allowing each model to express its own personality.”
- Create desirable, expressive cars
- Put technology at the service of people
- Embrace electrification
- Design interiors as genuine living spaces
Renault's heritage includes the Renault 5, Renault 4, Renault 8 Gordini, Espace and Twingo, and Malval treats it as a source of creative inspiration rather than a template to copy. Iconic models are reinterpreted with today's design language, technologies and proportions; the Renault 5 E-Tech electric and Renault 4 E-Tech electric illustrate that approach. Future models need not draw on existing heritage at all and may come from entirely new concepts, with original solutions enabled by new architectures or technological innovation. Concept cars such as E-Space are cited as ways to explore ideas and imagine tomorrow's icons.
“This emotional value is precious to Renault because it embodies the brand and brings it to life. I have been entrusted with a wonderful heritage, and I take great care of it. It is important to do so without nostalgia. We are not trying to reproduce the cars of the past; the aim is to reinterpret and reinvent them.”
Malval describes artificial intelligence as an accelerator of creativity and execution: starting from a sketch, designers can rapidly explore different colours, perspectives and environments and test more directions in far less time. AI cannot replace human inspiration, the initial hand-drawn sketch or the designer's judgement, and it is still the designer who selects, combines and discards ideas and shapes a vehicle's overall identity. Electrification is also reshaping design, because new architectures allow different proportions and freer organisation of volumes and interior space. Connectivity, interfaces and new features extend the work from designing a car to creating a cohesive experience from exterior to interior.
Renault's design teams in France work with teams in Brazil, India and South Korea to combine brand consistency with local specificities, since dimensions, regulations, usage patterns, colours and materials can vary by market. Malval describes the resulting vehicles as brothers and sisters: different, yet instantly recognisable as members of the same family. His vision sets a five-year ambition for a cohesive, international and instantly recognisable range in which every model has its own character, standing out through contemporary styling or the ingenuity of new concepts.
Previously from Renault
Renault has recently put a broad range on display: at the 2026 Paris Motor Show, Renault, Dacia and Alpine shared one stand with 50 vehicles and six world premieres under the group's futuREady strategy. In India, Renault introduced a turbocharged Triber three-row vehicle priced between ₹7.84 lakh and ₹8.99 lakh, with 100hp and 180Nm of output.
- Renault Group brings 50 vehicles and six world premieres to the 2026 Paris Motor Show
- Renault Introduces Forced-Induction Triber Three-Row Vehicle with 180Nm Output
Background drawn from MotorClaw's earlier coverage of Renault's official releases.
Why this matters
For buyers, the plan is about whether future Renaults will look related without looking identical, and how electrification changes proportions and interior space. It also affects designers and international teams in France, Brazil, India and South Korea, who must adapt shared cues to local tastes, regulations and usage. Malval's emphasis on AI as a sketching and rendering accelerator, not a replacement for designers, signals how the work itself is changing.
Terms in This Story
- Design language
- The consistent set of shapes, proportions, surfaces and details that give a brand's vehicles a recognisable look.
- Concept car
- A one-off or show vehicle used to explore design and technology ideas before they reach production.
- Silhouette
- The outline or profile of a vehicle's body, which helps define its stance and recognisability.
- Vehicle architecture
- The underlying structural and mechanical layout of a car, which sets basic proportions and how much interior space is possible.
Summarised from the linked release; details can be imperfect — always verify against the original source.