The start of 2026 marked five years since Renault Group chief executive Luca de Meo unveiled the ‘Renaulution’ strategy – a multi-tiered approach aimed at bolstering competitiveness, efficiency and the group’s transition to electric vehicles.
Allied to this is a commitment to improving the circularity and recyclability of the materials it uses across all aspects of car design – last year, SustainabilityOnline had the chance to attend the launch of the Renault Emblème, which as well as boasting a dual-energy powertrain (rechargeable battery and hydrogen fuel cell), was developed using at least 50% post-consumer recycled materials, sourced from end-of-life vehicles and industrial scrap.
At the recent Rethinking Materials Summit in London, Francois Farion, design director, Innovation, Sustainability and CMF Process at Renault Group, took part in a panel discussion on the topic Inside the Machine: Transforming Automotive Interiors, which addressed the latest developments in sustainable automotive design.
We caught up with Farion on the sidelines of the summit, to discuss how Renault is balancing its sustainability commitments with customer expectations. As he explained, his role involves integrating the group’s sustainability agenda into design practicalities.
“Three years ago, Laurens [van den Acker, chief design officer of the Renault Group], acknowledged that we needed to have somebody in design that would represent sustainability, both to pass the message to the designers as well as connect the design element to the broader sustainability agenda, led by Cléa [Martinet, vice-president of sustainability at Renault Group and Ampere – check out our recent interview with her here]. That is now a big part of my job, along with innovation.”
Sustainable focus
As Farion explains, when he came into the business – joining from Japanese carmaker Nissan in 2018 – design-related sustainability tended to focus on two areas: engineers increasing recycled plastics in hidden vehicle components, and CMF designers pushing for visible recycled materials in interiors, such as the introduction of recycled fabrics and recycled plastics into models such as the Renault 5 E-Tech, Renault 4 and Renault Scénic.
“This was mainly being driven by young designers,” he says. “They were pushing like crazy to do that.”
This, in turn, led to Renault expanding its sustainability focus to heavier materials including aluminium and steel. However, as Farion notes, scaling circularity in these areas hasn’t always been straightforward, despite some positive achievements.
“We have had some very good results – recently, we worked on a wheel made with 90% recycled aluminium,” he says. “A lot of people thought it wouldn’t work, that we would encounter problems, and while it’s not finished yet, so I can’t claim victory, it’s so far, so good. All the tests we have done to date – for aspect, for strength – are positive.
“Of course, there are some limitations – for example, with bumpers, we cannot go to more than 25% recycled materials today due to shock resistance, particularly when it’s cold outside. But that’s not the main problem.
“The main problem is the cost. When you have something that’s the same price, or more cost-effective, it’s low-hanging fruit. But when we did an analysis, to see whether there was any recycled material that was slightly less expensive than the virgin material, nobody was able to tell me.”
Renault Group is using AI to identify lower-cost recyclable materials and is prioritising solutions that can be applied across millions of vehicles rather than individual models.
“We have found some areas where we can do things that are less expensive and more recyclable,” he adds. “That’s what we want: solutions that don’t just work on one car – we want them to work on all cars. That’s 2.2 million cars across the Renault Group. So it’s quite important.”
Customer demand
As to the type of customers that are seeking more sustainable vehicles, Farion points to recent research conducted by its Dacia brand, which found that by and large, customers were interested in sustainable materials and electric vehicles but often felt constrained by affordability.
“They tell us, ‘yes, I’d like to have an EV, but I can’t afford it’,” he says. “That’s something we need to address. Also, when you ask them whether they would like to have more recycled materials and things like that, they are very positive about it.”
While there is a preconceived notion that younger consumers are more active in driving sustainable behaviour than older generations, Renault’s sales figures – the average buyer of a new Renault is aged 56 – contradict this perception. Farion notes that higher-end customers, including buyers of Alpine vehicles, are increasingly seeking sustainable and lightweight materials rather than traditional luxury finishes.
“The people that are really in the super high-end market are no longer asking for exotic materials such as crocodile skin,” he says. “Instead, they are looking for more sustainable options. Customers purchasing an Alpine, for example, tell us: ‘I’m not interested in another leather seat. I’m interested in a new sustainable and lightweight material that you can offer me.’
As he notes, consumer acceptance of sustainable automotive interiors depends on whether materials presenting a clear and authentic visual story – in other words, more natural looking finishes rather than heavily processed ones.
“If you show something that looks natural and is made from a natural material, people understand the story – if it’s clean, easy to follow, and looks good, they will buy into that story,” says Farion. “So, if you present something that is made of flax, looks like a woven flax, and is presented as such, people can understand that.
“However, if you use flax and you put a super thick, clear coat on that, people don’t get it. It’s like, ‘okay, there is flax inside, but it’s covered under a shiny coating’. There’s a new trend towards open-pore wood and natural looking wood, and people feel that this is a natural material, so they are very positive about it.
“But at the same time, if you have something that looks very recycled, you have to be careful, because if it looks fibrous, or a little bit like secondhand wood that has been rehashed, people say ‘well, it’s probably fine for some people, but I don’t want that in my car’.”
Perception, in other words is key. Renault Group recently replaced leather steering wheel coverings with a 50% bio-sourced alternative made from cotton and castor oil, which actually outperformed leather in customer blind testing and durability assessments – “top-level leather only ranked fourth in terms of customer appreciation”, says Farion – challenging assumptions around the perceived quality of sustainable materials.
“We have to prove to customers that we can make these sort of changes, and they’re not going to feel shortchanged,” he adds.
Navigating sustainability regulation
European regulation is understandably a strong motivator of sustainability initiatives at Renault Group – “a company like Renault cannot afford to be non-compliant”, says Farion – with the group viewing compliance as both a challenge and an opportunity to accelerate sustainability targets.
“In some cases, it helps us,” he says. “In the case of plastics, for example, it helps us to push the sustainability angle because by 2032, we need to be using at least 15% post-consumer recycled plastics.
“What is complicated is that there is lots of legislation arriving at the same time, one on batteries, one on deforestation, one on plastics, and all these measures concerning CBAM. That makes things a little bit more difficult, but in general, I would say regulation helps us.”
On the EU’s Omnibus legislation, meanwhile, which seeks to free up red tape and ensure Europe can better compete internationally, Farion notes that while Chinese automotive manufacturers currently hold advantages in technology, speed of execution, sustainability, design, service networks and vehicle lifecycle management are areas where European manufacturers can remain competitive.
“When it comes to sustainability, there are almost no Chinese companies that have made really big sustainability claims,” he says. “Some of them have made mild, ‘on the surface’ claims. That seems to be a domain where they are lacking a little bit.
“So, when it comes to a question of where you are going to compete – in design, yes. In sustainability, certainly.”
Learn more about Renault’s sustainability strategy here.
