Professor of contemporary history at the university of Evry-Val d’essonne, Jean-Louis Loubet is a well-known specialist in the automotive and mutations in this industry. It analyzes the new craze that has engulfed the sector.
Is there in automotive history, since the post-war, similar phenomena to the revolution ” SUV ” ?
We can cite two examples of attempts to breach similar, that have known fates very different. First, in the early 1950s, Renault has attempted to impose a family of vehicles quite unconventional, called the range Colorale. The Renault Colorale were from a species of cross between a car city and a utility vehicle. The targeted clientele was at one time the families that populated the French countryside, and the inhabitants of the colonies… The name Colorale is built up from two adjectives : colonial and rural areas.
This vehicle was large and roomy, it could have four-wheel drive. Finally, he had many of the characteristics of the SUV as we know it today. However, this model has been a total failure. It does not correspond to the expectations of the customers. He was sentenced to be heavy, very greedy in essence… This is the first break. It is a dude.
For the second example, we jump to 1984, when the Renault – new – out Space, the first mpv. This is, again, a real break, since the engineers propose a shape quite different from what we see at the time : a surprising mixture of sedan and utility. And it is going to be successful, even if one does not necessarily remember today that it took the Space a little bit of time to get there. Finally, it is a segment in which the client, family, and bourgeois is engulfed. The concept has been much copied, and has been democratized, with Renault, with Scenic or renault Twingo.
The phenomenon SUV…
