Gilles Vidal returns to Stellantis
The Cantal designer returns to the Stellantis group where he spent most of his career, after a five-year interlude at Renault.
It's the surprise of the summer. In a press release issued on Friday, July 25, shortly before 3 p.m., Stellantis announced the appointment of Gilles Vidal as design director for its European brands. Two weeks earlier, on July 9, at the Technocentre, where we had been invited to preview the Renault Boreal, he was on stage alongside Fabrice Cambolive, Renault's CEO, and Bruno Vanel, the product manager. A professional to the utmost, he had presented the styling of the diamond-shaped company's new SUV intended for international markets. Nothing suggested he was about to leave the Technocentre to return to the DNA.
A return to his roots for the Cantal native, who spent the first part of his career with the PSA Peugeot-Citroën group. Joining Citroën in 1996, the French designer stayed with the Franche-Comté group for 24 years. He became one of the pillars of PSA group design, one on whom Jean-Pierre Ploué could rely. He oversaw the construction of the DNA and the consolidation of the design of the three brands—Citroën, DS, and Peugeot—at PSA's technical center in Vélizy.
From 2009, Ploué, having become style director for the three brands, entrusted him with responsibility for Peugeot concept cars. He notably designed the 2010 SR1 concept, heralded as the style manifesto for the future of the lion brand. In January 2010, he was entrusted with the direction of Peugeot design. He notably oversaw the renewal projects for the 308, 3008, and 208, which were awarded the Car of the Year title between 2015 and 2019.
In November 2020, while the world was living under the Covid regime, the Renault group announced, a few weeks after the arrival of Luca de Meo, that it had recruited Gilles Vidal to lead the design of the diamond brand. A spoil of war, in a way, for Renault. Reporting to Laurens van den Acker, who leads the design of all the Billancourt-based firm's brands, Gilles Vidal didn't just renew the entire range. He established a new formal language and led the development of the electric range with the R4, R5, and soon the Twingo. A few months ago, he had launched the process of evolving Renault's design with the Emblème concept, which foreshadowed an electric sedan at the end of the decade. The announcement of his return to Stellantis had the effect of a bombshell within the Renault Technocentre, about ten kilometers from the ADN. At Renault, things are starting to add up after the surprise departure of Luca de Meo a few weeks earlier. Within the diamond, this wave of departures is tantamount to thinking that "trouble comes in squadrons." Fortunately for Renault, Gilles Vidal is leaving the company after completing a full model renewal cycle. A fan of classic cars, the star designer couldn't have refused Stellantis's offer. For John Elkann, the president of the Franco-Italian group, Antonio Filosa, Carlos Tavares' successor, and Jean-Philippe Imparato, the head of European operations, Gilles Vidal has established himself as the man of choice to put the European brands back on the path to success.
Taking over from Jean-Pierre Ploué, who is looking forward to a well-deserved retirement, the Cantal designer returns to a company he knows well, but one that has changed significantly since the PSA-Fiat Chrysler merger. In many ways, it's even unrecognizable. He will be operating in an environment where constraints are increasingly hampering creativity. Cost savings have become a key factor, and the group will be unable to avoid repositioning its brands or even reflecting on the future of some. We're betting that Gilles Vidal will return to the DNA with the assurance of having a free hand to evolve the design of the European brands, including Abarth, Alfa Romeo, Citroën, DS, Fiat, Lancia, Maserati, Opel, and Peugeot. Meanwhile, at the Technocentre, Laurens van den Acker is not going to have a restful summer. Management has asked him to find a successor to Gilles Vidal. Will he prioritize internal mobility or will he look for a designer from outside? All bets are off, but it would be rather comical if he recruited someone from Stellantis!
lefigaro
