Renault Launches Its First Design Academy In India — Will It Unearth The Next Top Car Designer?

Renault Design is organising the project in the country and developed under the lead of Patrick Lecharpy, VP, Advanced Design and Head of Renault Design India Studios.

Also, part of the programme is Luciano Bove, Design Academy Head of Program and Advanced Design Manager, Alain Lonay, New Design Director Mumbai & Chennai studios and Philippe Ponceau, General Manager, Chennai Studio.

Part of the programme is an exclusive six months training in car design to select six selected post graduates. Once they complete the programme, they will get a Professional Internship certificate, and the best two candidates will receive a permanent designer job offer from Renault.

According to Patrick Lecharpy VP Advanced Design, Head of Renault Design India studios. "India remains one of the important markets for Groupe Renault. The start of the New Design Academy is a testimony to our strong customer centric approach and long-term vision to strategically developing the skill-set of its workforce."

He further added that "With the Design Academy, we decided to make an extra step to train young talents, select the best and put them together in one of our foreign Design Studio. We will give a project to develop for which they will get the chance they were waiting for to unleash their creative abilities & skills."

Renault received a total of 400 entries from various parts of the world including Italy, USA, Russia, India, Brazil, Argentina, Poland, France, Germany, UK, Iran, Korea, Japan and China. The entries were judged by Patrick Lecharpy, Luciano Bove, Alain Lonay and Philippe Ponceau and selected the six candidates by their creativity and skills level.

Below are the candidates selected for the programme:

• Rohit Dhiman, India (IAAD Design University in Torino, Italy)
• Smitesh Chavanke, India (ISD RUBIKA Design school, Pune)
• Nikhil Sorte, India (ISD RUBIKA Design school, Pune India)
• Yimeng Li, China (CCS Detroit Design school,USA)
• Alireza Salehi, Iran (IAAD Design University in Torino, Italy)
• Gautam Muthuswamy, India (ISD RUBIKA Design school, Pune



During the six months programme, the selected candidates will be working on a project given to them, under the vigilant eyes of a team of 12 Renault designers (from France and India) including the Program Director, Patrick Lecharpy and Design Manager, Luciano Bove.

The candidates will have numerous projects progress meetings and a final presentation to top management. Training modules include Exterior & Interior design, C&T & Trends, Digital Modelling, Manual Modelling, French Automobile Design, Design Management, etc.



Renault Design has a long history of relations with Design Schools worldwide. The design studio has been granting internships to talented students in its design studios across the global design organisation including France, Korea, Romania, Brazil and India.



One of the upcoming vehicle from Renault in India is the compact SUV Kaptur, below is an extensive photo gallery, click to view.