“An ideas accelerator that allows us to develop a unique and attractive design vocabulary without betraying the brand’s established image”. Those, briefly, are the words used by the Top Management of Renault Trucks to describe the Radiance, their new long distance tractor project, whose virtues include superior performance, fuel economy and an optimum driver-truck interface.
The project was conducted at top speed, its designers able to capitalise on the brand’s cultural heritage and its three core values: efficiency, warmth and innovation. The result is a genuine “concept truck” and a preview of ideas applicable in the near future.
The Radiance, which looks both cutting-edge and “feasible” is also notable for its meticulously crafted aerodynamics, thanks to which it can combine an innovative shape with optimum performance and fuel economy. The designers have made fascinating and highly effective use of glazing: wide expanses of adjustable transparency glass that hide the pillars and cover almost all the roof.
Access to the interior is facilitated by a retractable step system that is activated whenever the cab doors are opened and ensures that you don’t need to be a contortionist to get in or out of the Radiance. The driver benefits from a multi-adjustable seat and a small, car-type steering wheel, around which an ergonomically designed dashboard extends in every direction.
The Radiance cab is equally user-friendly when parked in a lay-by, easily transformed into either an efficient office or a relaxing “living room” for its two drivers. Far from coincidental, you might think, given Renault Trucks’ stated objectives: to create a concept that users can drive like a car, work in like an office; live in like their own home”.
The article continues in Auto & Design no. 150
