The global trend toward more luxurious, safer and more powerful cars is not lost on Renault. Despite cutting back production due to slow sales of the Laguna, the company is moving forward with plans to go even further up-market. One of the cars Renault will use to get there is the product of a joint-venture with Samsung.

To be built in South Korea, the new car will be the largest Renault has ever produced. Renault’s D platform is the basis of the new sedan, which is due for launch in 2010. The Vel Satis name may not come along for the upgrade, however, since “that name does not have the same spirit as the new model,” according to Renault’s director of product development Beatrice Foucher-Sybord, in an interview with Automotive News at the Geneva auto show. The Renault-Samsung model is the first of two new larger, upscale vehicles from Renault. The second will be a French-built crossover due in late 2010 or 2011.

If one were to look at sales alone, it’d be reasonable to assume Renault was headed down-market, not up - a weak western European large-car market on top of a strong small-car market in central and eastern Europe means the company’s sales are trending toward the low-cost end of the spectrum. Renault explains this by noting the dynamic nature of emerging markets - and although the total percentage of cars sold may be increasingly low-cost, the company still believes there is room in the luxury segment.

Source: Motorauthority

Dopo la Vel Satis ....ogni idea potrebbe essere vincente.

devono rifare la Safrane... mantenere volumi piu classici della Vel ma sempre con una linea aggressiva... un po come la 607 che pur avendo volumi molto classici ,(nel 2000) aveva una linea decisamente più aggressiva delle vecchie Classe E,serie 5 e A6...e infatti ha avuto molto piu successo della Vel..anche se bisogna ammettere che chi sceglieva la Vel la prendeva per distinguersi da tutto (anche lo spot diceva una roba simile)..era nella filosofia delle renault inizio 3^ millennio...

Pensassero a fare bene le auto normali dato che ultimamente non brillano neanche per quelle

... Despite cutting back production due to slow sales of the Laguna, the company is moving forward with plans to go even further up-market. .....

Low sales? E ttte credo, vista l'auto Era molto meglio la vecchia Laguna... Spero (nel loro interesse) che se faranno davvero un'ammiraglia più tradizionale, sia nella falsariga della Safrane (prima serie, pero') e perchè no della R25.