After five years overseeing hit after hit at Renault, Vidal has returned to Stellantis as its European design chief
Gilles Vidal is a superstar in the world of design.
He has had success reinventing both Peugeot and Renault over the past 20 years. But now he’s taking on his most challenging job yet, leading the design of no fewer than 10 automotive brands.
The news that he would be leaving Renault to head design for Stellantis’s European division was a shock when it arrived in July last year.
Hype for the new Twingo was at its peak, following the firm’s successful reimaginings of the classic 4 and 5. Meanwhile, the Clio was about to undergo its most dramatic evolution in decades.
He could quite easily have kept on churning out hits. Perhaps that would have been enough to position himself as the eventual successor to Renault Group design chief Laurens van den Acker.
Yet a homecoming clearly proved more appealing. Stellantis’s precursor, the PSA Group, was where Vidal made his name establishing not one but two fresh identities for Peugeot.
First was 2010’s SR1 concept, a handsome convertible that did away with the huge smiling grilles of the brand’s cars through the noughties; then came 2017’s Instinct, which evolved his design language with the fang-like running lights that remain a Peugeot signature to this day.
He opens in dramatic fashion: “We are living in the biggest revolution of the past few centuries, probably not just in our industry but in the world too. With the speed at which we need to do our projects now, with AI tools and the power it has, what do we do with that?
“Maybe there is a challenge on the way in how we build cars in factories and how they can be transformed into something much more efficient. If you observe the world today, we are living in the biggest revolutions for a few centuries. We need to adapt accordingly.”
Vidal’s message is clear: a company with the resources of a giant like Stellantis must produce cars that are equally as revolutionary as the time in which they’re produced – and, critically, they must all be distinct from one another.
I join Vidal for his first appearance since his return to Stellantis, and there’s a strange air of calm about him as he sits, wide-legged and with shoulders dropped, to lay bare his vision for the corporation’s myriad of European marques.
Vidal credits Antonio Filosa, appointed as CEO of Stellantis in June last year, as being critical in this drive for greater individualism: “Antonio Filosa, compared to before, is more than open to this. He knows that diversity is a better business than a lack of diversity.
“Take car differentiation between brands and models, for sure, but also take the ability to create different levels or a few collections of one car. The Fiat 500 did that brilliantly. New versions and colours can be made much quicker than the rhythm of facelifts, and new models are a better business. It’s a great investment.”
You get the impression that Vidal might not have come to Stellantis were former CEO Carlos Tavares – famed for dogmatic cost-cutting and parts-sharing – still in charge. The two evidently worked closely when Tavares headed PSA and Vidal led Peugeot’s design, yet “in the five, almost six years that I missed, all this [diversity] was forbidden”, says Vidal. Filosa taking over was “like suddenly opening all the doors instantly”.
Asked to clarify why now is the time to retrace his steps, he elaborates: “Well, there was a big change of management. Also, Jean-Pierre Ploué, my predecessor and previous boss, was retiring; obviously they were looking for someone to replace him.
“I think we’ve done great stuff at Renault, and [former group CEO] Luca de Meo left at the same time. In the context of all these things happening all at once, it just felt right. Look at the potential of this company.
“I know some people are doubting: ‘you have 14 brands, isn’t that too much?’ – but why would it be?”
With all the pieces finally in place, Vidal is now toiling away with the designers at the 10 brands for which he is responsible – Abarth, Alfa Romeo, Citroën, DS, Fiat, Lancia, Maserati, Opel/Vauxhall and Peugeot – under the guidance of global design boss Ralph Gilles and European CEO Jean-Philippe Imparato.
We may come to understand his vision sooner than expected. “That is the challenge; the big piece of work we are attacking and proposing to show you very soon,” says Vidal. “At the Paris motor show [in October], when we meet again, I hope there will be a ton of things to show you.”
The lion in the room
Among the most striking pieces from Vidal’s past is the 2018 Peugeot E-Legend concept, a revival of 1969’s 504 Coupé. It seems no coincidence that, here in Stellantis’s design studio, it has been parked front and centre as Vidal outlines his manifesto.
“When I [joined Stellantis], I had a lot of calls from French journalists asking: ‘Are you going to build the E-Legend now?” he says. “Wait, I’m not even at the company yet!” It turns out it was all but ready to be made into a production car, only for a last-minute change of heart: “It was actually feasible as you see it. It would have been like that. It was the right balance between everything [radical design and production viability].”
More broadly, Vidal seems to have closed the door on reinventing classics: “This [the E-Legend] would have been great. The Renault 5 is great. The Fiat Grande Panda is great – maybe less retro but still great. But it’s not always a good idea. It’s not right for every product.”
