For an automaker like Renault Group, decarbonizing mobility is a key objective in the fight against climate change. To achieve net zero carbon by 2040 in Europe and 2050 worldwide, in line with its targets, the company needs to revolutionize how it designs and builds its vehicles.

“We are keeping the Group’s promise to be eminently human—and completely overhauling the way we design vehicles,” said Cléa Martinet, VP of Sustainability at the Renault Group. “Scenic E-Tech electric is the first Renault vehicle with built-in commitments relating to sustainability and decarbonization, from cradle to grave, even from cradle to cradle, in terms of recycled content and recyclability.”

This new paradigm, which it calls eco-design, revolves around preserving resources and reducing a vehicle’s environmental impact throughout its life cycle.

“Eco-design isn’t an afterthought in the design process; it is the essential starting point,” said Gilles Vidal, VP of Design for the Renault Group. “Design is intrinsically associated with creating a sustainable vehicle. Every line, every curve, every detail is thought through to embed sustainability in the car from the very beginning of the creative process.”

The company’s approach is demonstrated at the 2024 Paris Motor Show this week by the Emblème, a vision of a future family vehicle and a laboratory showcasing innovations the company developed with its Ampere EV and software unit and partners to meet these requirements. The main challenge of the landmark project lies in the extent to which decarbonization has been maximized across the entire life cycle of the vehicle.

 

Measuring lifecycle analysis

Renault Group uses the global, standardized multi-criterion LCA (lifecycle analysis) method to quantify a vehicle’s environmental impacts from cradle to grave. One of its main uses is to calculate the global warming potential associated with greenhouse gas emissions measured in CO2 equivalent per vehicle sold.

It calculates the actual consumption of its vehicles over 200,000 km (124,000 mi), though the company and its Ampere unit support the more stringent proposal made by the French automotive industry to measure the impact of the entire vehicle life cycle.

With Emblème, the company aimed to slash greenhouse gas emissions by 90% compared with today’s vehicles to produce just 5 t of CO2 equivalent from cradle to grave. To achieve this, the project explored multiple approaches such as recycled materials with a low carbon footprint, natural materials, production processes relying entirely on renewable energy, general implementation of re-used parts, and circularity. The same was true of the technical choices including the powertrain.

For comparison, total emissions based on its LCA for Renault’s Megane E-Tech electric amount to 24 t of CO2 equivalent. That is just less than half that of an equivalent model running on fossil fuels—in the case of a Captur with a gasoline engine, which emits 50 t of CO2 equivalent.

All-electric mobility, in other words, is more virtuous in terms of CO2 equivalent emissions, according to Renault.

 

Efficient design language

With the Emblème, Renault says that it took a new holistic approach to vehicle design. Its designers wanted an exterior that blends sportiness, elegance, and emotion through sensual curves and graphic, technical character lines to create an ultra-desirable object.

The design is also the result of “meticulous” optimization of aerodynamics, designed for efficiency with a more sustainable approach but without compromising on aesthetics. It has a good but not class-leading aero Cx number of 0.25.

The exterior mirrors are replaced by two cameras integrated into the wheel arches, with windscreen wipers concealed under the hood and door e-latch handles recessed into the bodywork. Two fins on the hood and two air vents on the bumper channel the airflow towards the windscreen and behind the wheels, respectively. The wheels are full discs to conduct airflow along the body. The F1-inspired flat-bottom design is enhanced by an active diffuser, which tilts downwards and to the rear to balance the airflow and minimize aerodynamic drag.

The design was fine-tuned using digital-twin technology and state-of-the-art digital simulation equipment provided by the BWT Alpine F1 Team, as part of a collaboration with Renault and its Ampere. By pooling their expertise, they were able to optimize passive and active aerodynamics for efficient air penetration.

 

Innovating in the C-segment and higher

The Emblème symbolizes Renault’s reaffirmed ambition to continue innovating in the C-segment and higher but in line with its value-based strategy.

Its design is a combination of an estate/wagon, with a long 2.90-m (114.2-in) wheelbase, and a coupé, with a moderate 1.52-m (59.8-in) height and flowing roofline. The vehicle is 4.80 m (189.0 in) long for comfortable family travel.

Its strong curves are showcased by the green bodywork paint’s dichroic effect, which makes the color look different depending on the viewed angle. Exploring new paths in design inspired by the iconic Renault logo, the light signature is intended to be both high-tech and easily identifiable.

A vehicle’s weight, which is partially linked to its size, impacts its CO2 equivalent emissions at several levels: when materials are extracted, during production and transport, during use via its impact on energy consumption, and when the vehicle is recycled.

As part of their eco-design approach, the designers and engineers hunted down every extra kilogram, intending to reach a weight of 1750 kg (3860 lb) including batteries. As a result, the Emblème weighs less than most hybrid SUVs or EVs of similar size, claims the company.

 

Low-carbon dual-energy powertrain

The mass is more impressive since the Emblème has a dual-energy electric powertrain powered by a “conventional” rechargeable battery sufficient for everyday use and by a hydrogen fuel cell for longer journeys. Based on the AmpR Medium platform, the rear-wheel-drive architecture hosts the various powertrain components—electric motor, battery, fuel cell, and hydrogen tank—while maintaining a low center of gravity and ideal weight distribution to promote performance and efficiency.

The demo car features a relatively low-power 160-kW wound-rotor electric motor that uses no rare earths.

It is powered by a small 40-kW·h NMC (nickel manganese cobalt) battery, which the company says is lighter, cheaper, less bulky, and more environmentally friendly than that of a typical long-range family electric vehicle. It has a range of several hundred kilometers, which it says is more than enough for everyday journeys.

The 30-kW PEM FC (proton-exchange membrane fuel cell), with a maximum efficiency of around 60%, runs on “low-carbon” hydrogen via a 2.8-kg (6.2-lb) tank, providing the power required for long journeys.

The configuration is said to maximize versatility for this type of vehicle. It can cover up to 1000 km (620 mi) as rapidly as an ICE (internal combustion engine) vehicle without charging but with just two stops of less than 5 min each for hydrogen refueling for a range of 350 km (217 mi). On a typical journey between Paris and Marseille, 75% of the electricity consumed by the vehicle is produced by the fuel cell, with no emissions other than water.

 

An innovative collaboration

The ambitious decarbonization goals of the Emblème demo car project required new Renault working methods. More than 20 partners worked on the project with Renault and Ampere, each one contributing technology or expertise to slash CO2 equivalent emissions by 90% over the vehicle’s entire life cycle.

Renault said that the collective horizontal approach encouraged innovation and removed barriers between the group, its brands, entities, partners, and suppliers. For this project, the approach made it possible to harness exceptional technological diversity and complexity to achieve high decarbonization targets.