This week, Renault Group presented the Renault Frères Innovation Trophies 2023 at Hangar Y in Meudon (France), an emblematic site of aeronautical innovation in the 19th and 20th centuries. For this 3rd edition, 10 teams were rewarded, each having innovated in categories as varied as Industry, Quality, Customer Relations, Technology, Small & Smart and Transformation.
The winning teams, made up of Renault Group employees, were selected from among the 570 who applied this year to present innovations that have already been implemented in recent months. They were presented with their trophies by Luca de Meo and members of the Group’s Top Management.
Renault was born of an innovation nearly 125 years ago with the invention of the direct-drive gearbox. Since then, the Group has never ceased to innovate, and now boasts more than 12,000 active patents, which constitute the company’s intellectual capital.
The rhythm at which new technologies are being introduced has never been as high as it has been in recent years, and innovation is therefore of decisive importance. Renault Group has understood this by stimulating the talents and initiatives of its employees, resulting in a sharp acceleration in the rate of patent filings since 2020. Innovation is at the heart of Renault’s strategy and is a key factor in shaping the future of the automotive industry and new forms of mobility, and in ensuring the Group’s competitiveness.
“Innovation is not just a question of technology or a matter for engineers. It’s a state of mind that we need to cultivate throughout the company, from industry to customer relations, via quality, technology and day-to-day processes! By the end of this year, we will have almost doubled the number of patents filed by the company compared with two years ago.”
Luca de Meo, CEO Renault Group
Trophies-winning innovations by category
Technology (3 awards)
- Solarbay, a panoramic roof that can be made opaque or transparent on demand. High-tech, “magical” and useful, it also provides thermal protection, more space under the roof and less weight.
- Dacia Sleep 3-in-1 pack. Simple, removable and affordable, it turns Dacia Jogger into a real bedroom.
- An innovation that optimises the cooling of hybrid vehicle batteries through the clever use of air conditioning refrigerant
Industry
- The Supply Chain Control Tower secures supplies to factories by displaying in real time the positions and contents of all trucks travelling between suppliers and factories in all countries. It anticipates supply risks linked to the weather, traffic, etc. and recommends the best security solutions.
Quality
- Confirmation Runs”: a new type of test on all types of roads, with around a hundred of the Group’s testers at the wheel, identifying the latest areas for improvement to ensure that the vehicles are at the top of their game when they are launched in terms of driving pleasure, quality, and reliability.
Customer Relations
- Plug Inn, an application that brings together electric vehicle drivers and owners of private recharging points, in order to offer wider access to recharging.
Small & Smart”
- Use of Artificial Intelligence for zero-defect validation of driving aids.
Transformation
- A new operating mode that places factories at the centre of collaborative handling (factory, engineering, network, after-sales) of incidentology and customer incident resolution.
2 special trophies were awarded by Luca de Meo
- The first for an individual initiative to develop an industrial tool for the instantaneous, simultaneous, and precise positioning of the 48 wires of an electric stator.
- The second for an innovative painting process for two-tone vehicles that considerably reduces the use of certain materials (plastics and protective tapes) and cuts waste.
MORE INFORMATION ABOUT RENAULT FRÈRES INNOVATION TROPHIES 2023 ON Renault Group website
SOURCE: Renault Group
