No revival for Alpine February 20, 2006
Renault will not revive its Alpine brand, but it might use the name on a future model.
“The name would be good,” said Patrick Pelata, Renault’s executive vice president for product and strategic planning, when asked about Alpine. But he said bringing back the revered brand would be too difficult.
The sporty Alpine brand was beloved by car enthusiasts for nearly half a century.
Renault bought Alpine in the late 1970s but stopped producing cars under that name in 1995, as part of an effort to cut costs.
There has been speculation that Renault would use the Alpine name to add flair to its planned up-market vehicles.
Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn’s strategic plan for the company calls for 26 new products to be launched between now and 2009. Five of those vehicles will be luxury models, which Renault classifies as costing more than E27,000.
Renault hopes that the new, high-end cars will help double its sales of luxury models in Europe to 200,000 by the end of the decade.
The modest objective does not constitute a threat to any of the established luxury carmakers, he told a small group of journalists.
“Winning back those customers who left Renault, that’s the target,” he said. But he added that a post-2009 assault on the luxury segments is “possible.”
- Posted in : Uncategorized, Renault
- Author : Bullet
Comments»
no comments yet - be the first?