Under the code name Z37, the new Renault Mégane eVision concept car prefigures the 100% electric compact saloon that will be on the market very soon, from 2021. The first petal of the second generation family of Renault’s 100% electric vehicles. Let’s discover its design together…
Renault is very clear and doesn’t talk about concept cars, but show cars. The difference in vocabulary is important because this is the almost definitive version of the saloon which will complete the Mégane offer in 2021 with this new silhouette, 100% electric, based on the new CMF-EV platform.
This was designed by the Alliance and has just been inaugurated by the new Nissan Ariya, a dynamic SUV which will also be marketed in 2021 (below). The Japanese have the honour of launching the platform with an SUV silhouette, and Renault has the honour of launching it with a saloon silhouette.
With a length of 4.21 m compared with 4.36 m on the current Mégane saloon, the Mégane eVision therefore takes advantage of the 100% electric platform to position the four wheels at the four corners and, above all, to offer exceptional habitability worthy of a saloon in the upper segment.
No revolution, however, since all platforms designed for 100% electric (like the VW MEB) offer the same features. And above all, they offer the ease of dressing up this simple structure with different silhouettes.
We saw in a previous post (http://lignesauto.fr/?p=19921) that Volkswagen succeeded of designing a compact one-box sedan (the ID.3) on the same platform as the ID.4, a long SUV. Only the windscreen bay needed to be changed. For Renault and Nissan, it is undoubtedly the same operation that made it possible to carry out the CMF-EV.
However, it is indeed a sedan that will appear in 2021 and not the SUV that we could have imagined following the presentation last March of the Morphoz concept car. The latter has unveiled a new aesthetic language that the Mégane eVision show car transforms into a production vehicle.
There are close links between the Morphoz concept car and the Mégane eVsision show car. With these two vehicles, or even three since the Morphoz extends from 4.40 m to 4.80 m, Renault has no less than three offers, from 4.21 m to 4.80 m, on this platform. Not bad!
For the moment, it should be remembered that the Mégane eVision will be marketed in 2021 alongside the Mégane thermal and hybrid PHEV range, which will enable Renault to offer all the drive chains for its compact cars: petrol, diesel, hybrid PHEV and 100% electric. Another confirmation, Renault, like Volkswagen and unlike PSA, is initiating a specific range dedicated to 100% electric vehicles.
Finally, on the design side, this offer of 100% electric vehicles adopts a formal language that Renault defines as a “fusion between sensuality, technicality and aerodynamics. The new family of Renault electric vehicles will benefit from this innovative style“.
“With its large wheels, pronounced body height and the impression of robustness that comes from it, it inherits, for example, certain visual attributes of SUVs. Its compactness, short overhangs and long wheelbase make it more like an urban sedan. Its design also evokes the world of coupes with an integrated spoiler at the top of the roof and the presence of an aluminium diffuser under the bumper“. Let’s take a look at its main themes below in eight points:
1: floating roof, colour ‘Gold’, in gradation from the windscreen pillar.
2: the curved and highly sculpted bonnet, with two indentations on either side, is animated by two air inlets.
3: vertical front with fine optics with LED matrix technology. In the centre, the logo lights up to emphasise the vehicle’s electric motorisation. This luminous signature will be found on the standard model.
4: modified light signature, abandoning the “C” shape for this zigzag.
5: large wheels with 20” rims with narrower tyres but 21” aerodynamic hubcaps covering part of the tyre.
6: lateral light recharging hatch, inspired by the Morphoz one.
7: the side window trim illuminates and provides indirect lighting from the rearview mirror to the rear. This animation contributes to the car’s graphic signature.
8: the profile of the show car has three side windows, unlike that of the Mégane thermal saloon.
Below, the treatment of the lights takes up the theme of the front optics. You can guess a very precise work on the finesse and precision of these lights, treated like jewels in a case, just like what DS makes today.
With the next reorganisation at the heart of Renault design, led by Laurens van den Acker (below) at the request of Luca de Meo, and notably with the arrival of Gilles Vidal, will this new style be perennial? Answer at the beginning of 2021 when the official announcement of this reorganisation was made…
