The diamond firm wants to radically change the public’s perception of its brand, particularly the thorny section of quality. This is Thierry Charvet, industrial director and quality director of the French group, who carries Renault Strategic Quality Plan to make it one of the main pillars “Refresh”.

“We have developed an additional approach to road tests, which are carried out at the Renault Group Aubevoye technical center near Paris, where we have the necessary tracks and equipment. These tests are conducted with a small fleet of pre-production cars and trusted by experienced test drivers. We are now intensifying this process. In order to provide peace of mind for our customers, we put ourselves in their shoes with the help of so-called inspections. We provide more than a hundred of our employees with a fleet of 160 vehicles, which allows testing on all types of roads in several countries. This allowed us to identify approximately 350 areas for improvement and take action before the Renault Austral is in our dealerships and in the hands of our customers.”explains Thierry Charvet, director of industry and quality at Renault Group.

Renault: a new kind of quality control

Among the various requirements of this quality plan, the level of reliability of the new models under development is an important one: Renault has given extensive thought to this issue and carried out profound changes in road tests, which are conducted before commercial launch. This is how the Boulogne-Billancourt firm developed a new type of test: Confirmation is in progress.

In this context, the new Renault Austral was tested at no less than 2.8 million kilometers, and drove on all types of roads in Europe (France, Spain, Germany and Romania). So, more than 100 employees Renault has completed urban routes, on motorways, on national roads, on the plain, in the mountains and in all weather conditions.

These tests made it possible to track various possible points of improvement of the brand’s new SUV with the help of a special application on a smartphone. Engineers and brand experts can thus collect and analyze received data in real time.

Confirmation: All future models will be eligible

Thanks to these tests in real traffic conditions, Renault was able to identify any problems with its latest SUV and predict their appearance before they were in the hands of the customer. Thus, Renault wants to ensure the quality, reliability and durability of its cars throughout their lifetime.

Following the new 100% electric Renault Mégane E-Tech in 2020 and the new Renault Austral SUV, it will all future Renault models come who will benefit from “Confirmation Runs”. Among the employees involved, Álvaro Rodríguez Sastre works for the Renault Group in Spain and is also a tester and driver for Renault:

“I drive between 1,000 and 1,500 kilometers a week, depending on the period”Alvaro says: “One of the routes we often use for our tests, particularly for validation, connects Madrid and Valladolid, passing through Navacerrada, Segovia and Sepulveda. The designated route is always extremely varied and allows us to evaluate all aspects of the car: its handling on the road, its ability to accelerate, its comfort and even its acoustics. It makes me happy to know that our customers enjoy driving the Austral. »