Fabrice Cambolive, hello.
Hello. Delighted to welcome you to the Paris Motor Show.
At the Paris Motor Show, the world's automotive exhibition. Absolutely, it's unmissable.
First question: is there a car advertisement that comes to mind like that? Car and advertisement, is there a phrase that comes to mind or a specific model?
Well, it's true that product, film, advertising, it is of course linked. If there's one ad that comes to mind right now, with the arrival, ultimately, of the new generation of vehicles we are launching, it's the ad for the Clio saga, you know, where we said "it has everything of a big one." Because it was an ad that showed ambition, that wanted to put equipment into the vehicles, that wanted to make mobility even more accessible, even more pleasant and, ultimately, within reach of all French people.
Hello everyone and welcome to Le Figaro's TC Décideur, with me today, here live at the Paris Motor Show at Porte de Versailles, Fabrice Cambolive, who is the CEO of the Renault brand, nothing less than that. And you are passionate about cars, obviously, with a job like that, it's hard not to be. Could you perhaps pitch this job to me today, what is your daily routine?
Well, my daily routine is managing the leading French automotive brand in the world, since Renault is the best-selling brand globally. And in fact, when you have 1.6, 1.7 million customers per year, your goal is always the same. It's thinking about the models that are coming, the models that are arriving, designing them, developing them, building them, manufacturing them, selling them, and then ensuring that customers are extremely satisfied with them.
That customers are satisfied with them. So, you know this Renault group by heart. How long have you been working there?
Yes, I joined the Renault group in 1992.
Since 1992, you've been working, you've been loyal to the Renault group? What is unique about this group in your opinion? Why do the French love it so much, and personally, why do you love it so much? Because 32 years, well, that's your career, the Renault group.
Well, I think that the car was at the crossroads of all worlds: environment, technology, mobility, well-being, home. It's an object of sharing. So it is, ultimately, an object of passion. And on top of that, when you have the opportunity at Renault to pursue this passion all over the world, I personally, throughout my career, have been lucky enough to work in nine different countries, including France.
Well, in the end, you don't even have time to turn around, and each time, a new challenge awaits you. Once in Brazil, once in Russia, once in Germany, and that's how life goes by, but life goes by revolving around a passion, which is the automobile.
Nine different countries. You mention them, so why not name a few. You said Brazil.
Well, just quickly in chronological order, it was Austria, then Spain, then Switzerland, then Germany, Romania, Russia, Brazil, Dubai, and France.
And that makes for a rich career, I imagine, and it enriches a passion as well, because when you change countries, you change cultures, but you are supporting the same brand, the same group, in different countries with not always the same perception of it.
Yes, and each time this obsession to find the best fit between the products we develop and the customer in that country. And actually, what makes Renault's strength is that in certain regions, we've chosen to be very established, very localized, with a history, and to have vehicles that almost become national vehicles. If I take the Renault 4 for example in Colombia, everyone will talk to you about the Renault 4, and for them, it's a Colombian car.
Because depending on the country, obviously, there is this or that model, sorry, that will perform better. Are there sometimes surprises, I imagine?
We have models that don't exist in Europe, like the Kwid, which is a huge success, or the Oroch in Turkey currently, and in Brazil. We have European models that don't export, and then we have global vehicles that you find everywhere, and in the past, for example, the Renault 4 was one of those totally international vehicles.
You are launching, in favor of this Paris Motor Show, a major project called Future Ready. What exactly is Future Ready?
Well, Future Ready is when you are steering a company and a group of such magnitude, you need a short, medium, and long-term vision, and to know how to ultimately direct your actions both on a daily basis and with a five-year perspective. And the story of Future Ready is effectively about giving this visibility to our employees and to the outside world through technological choices, international strategy, market strategy, product strategy, and finally, after-sales and sales strategy to support all the product creation we do. So Future Ready is Renault's plan that ultimately allows us to bring all our teams together and ensure the company's future.
The future of the company, foresight, that is what we are talking about. Would you say that, since you started at Renault in 1992, foresight, this 5-to-10-year vision, has never been as important as it is today in terms of monitoring, developing scenarios, and predicting what will happen, and so on?
Yes, I think it's important because you always need a clear direction, and when you make an investment in the automotive industry, you are committing billions in investment. So, it is essential to have this vision and not get it wrong. If I take the example of the Renault brand four years ago, faced with all the choices of energy types for investment, diesel, gasoline, mild hybrid, hybrid, plug-in hybrid, electric, we ultimately decided to choose two technologies: hybrid and electric. And it's this kind of vision that carries you, guides the work of all the teams, and allows you to be successful in the end. But today, that is not enough. Today, when you have Chinese competition capable of making vehicles in two years, you must combine this long-term vision with a lot of pragmatism and speed of execution, because the competition doesn't wait.
We will return to the competition right after, but you did indeed mention electric and hybrid cars. "Hybrid" is a word I like because it's a buzzword in management. So, is the hybrid or plug-in hybrid car the future?
I would say that it is mainly the hybrid car that has a future because the market is splitting in two. People who have the ability to plug the vehicle into an outlet and ultimately recharge their vehicle. And we believe that all these customers will quickly move toward fully electric vehicles as battery technology improves. On the other hand, there is a part of the population that doesn't have access to charging stations, who don't have, well, it will change, but for the moment they don't have access; and so it's important for them, ultimately, to be able to replace their diesel vehicles, because that's generally the vehicles they use, with very fuel-efficient gasoline vehicles. And for that, hybrid technology, non-plug-in full hybrid, is ultimately the most suitable technology to succeed in this transition with the lowest possible usage costs.
