This is the third concept car by designer Laurens van den Acker, representing the “Family” stage in Renault's life-cycle oriented design strategy - the R-Space.
Van den Acker says he's tried to prove that a people carrier can be sexy, with an innovative interior design that caters for everybody on board.
It's motivated by an 80kW, 900cc three-cylinder turbopetrol mated to a dual clutch transmission - the first in a new range of modular “Energy Tce” engines that Renault will begin launching in production models during 2012.
Axel Breun, Director of Design for Concept and Show Cars, said: “The R-Space brings together qualities long considered opposed: family, functionality, sportiness and sensuality.
“It answers the expectations of a large slice of our modern society.”
The car's front treatment is centred on a large, vertically-oriented Renault lozenge while the tapered profile of the side windows emphasises the dynamic profile. The body panels, Breun says, are shaped as sculptured volumes so that the eye is drawn more to reflections and the play of the light than to the lines themselves.
Exterior designer Fabrice Pouille explained: “It was the pent-up energy in tensed muscles that inspired me.
“I wanted to make people feel the urge to caress the body, to make it sensuous - despite the fact that this is an MPV aimed at families.”
Renault's sequence of concept car designs has a parallel progression in their colours: starting with the passionate red of the DeZir, future concept cars will follow the sequence of the chromatic circle. Coming after the orange Captur, the R-Space is finished in honey-gold.
Interior designer Alexandre Gommier took up the story: “To reinterpret the MPV in a modern context, we provided a strong visual and functional contrast between the driver environment, where the focus is on driving pleasure, and a rear section conceived as a play space for children.”
The double doors are unobstructed by a central pillar and, in terms of interior design, the family likeness to the DeZir concept car is clearly visible at the front in the shape of the dashboard and seats. The driver sits in a cockpit-like environment, with a section of the seemingly floating dashboard dedicated to driving functions.
At the rear, the world revolves around children. This is a play space, flexible and infinitely versatile, and formed from a simple and universal shape - the cube. Twenty-seven small electric motors power an array of height-adjustable hexahedrons, allowing four settings to be programmed, from an all-flat surface, to a booster seat, a table or a random configuration (only when the vehicle is parked) for children's games.
The three-cylinder concept engine, says Renault, provides the performance of a 1.6, with 80kW and 160Nm, at a cost of only 95g/km of CO2, equivalent to fuel consumption of 3.7 litres/100km.
Its direct fuel-injection system works with BorgWarner Beru radio-frequency sparkplugs, which boost the size of the spark (as much as 1000 times bigger than with a conventional system) for ultra-clean combustion, along with variable camshaft timing and a new compact manifold containing integrating the turbo.
Pulse start uses direct-injection technology for ultra-rapid stopping and restarting of the engine when the vehicle is stationary in traffic.
A variable-displacement oil pump regulates the throughput of oil in line with the precise requirements of the engine, thus limiting the energy consumed by the pump and reducing frictional losses caused by the cam followers, timing chain and piston skirts.
The R-Space also has a DrivingEco sytem; push the “Eco” button and it adapts engine response to the various parameters influencing energy consumption, such as altitude, ambient temperature, use of heater, etc.
The “Conseil setting alerts and informs the driver as to the best way to drive economically and safely, including a forward-facing that captures information concerning the vehicle's surroundings (traffic lights, pedestrian crossings etc), so it can advise the driver about the best way to drive economically in each situation.
When the camera detects a set of traffic lights changing from green to red, for example, it advises the driver to stop accelerating. If, on the other hand, the camera detects a clear road ahead, and if the clear distance ahead permits, the advice would be to accelerate briskly to reach the required cruising speed.
At the end of each journey, the DrivingEco Score function rates the driver's eco-driving performance, detailing various parameters such as the use of brakes and engine braking. This helps the driver to evaluate his or her own eco-driving technique and benefit from the appropriate advice.
The fun side is that it can also be shared in real time with passengers: children in the rear playing video games on the screens inset into the head restraints automatically receive bonus points if the driver achieves a particularly good eco-score on a section of the journey.