Arty concept previews third-gen,
rear-wheel drive Renault Twingo
This Twin’Z concept (say it twin-zee)
previews the look and drivetrain of the third-gen Renault Twingo city car, due
late 2014. The big news is a platform shared with Daimler’s next smart, and the
swap to a rear-engined, rear-drive chassis. There’ll be petrol and electric
models, while a RWD Renault sport is a possibility.
A
stream of LED lights ‘flow’ over the Twin’Z from front grille to rear bumper
Concept wackiness
A stream of LED lights ‘flow’ over the
Twin’Z from front grille to rear bumper. Mobile discotheque? Not, says design
collaborator Ross Love grove: ‘Passengers are hooded in a high-tech environment
that bathes them in a light which responds to the Twin’Z’s energy.’ If that’s
not mad enough, the rear spoiler is fashioned from crystal. Party-piece
electrically-opening suicide doors won’t make production.
LED
light strips are embedded through door panels and super-minimalist seats, for
the full trippy rave club effect
She’s electric
The Twin’Z packs a tweaked Zoe drivetrain,
with four floor-mounted lithium-ion batteries juicing a 51kW electric motor
atop the rear wheels. Production Twingos will get conventional engine versions
too, sharing rear-drive mechanicals (and more besides) with smart’s comeback
ForFour.
“The
aim was to break down the boundaries between the world of an object whose
calling is to be in movement the automobile and that of furniture,”
Art attack
Ross Lovegrove worked for Sony and Apple in
the ’80s, before creating nature-inspired art. Nature represented here by the
seaweed-alike 18in rims, and recycled cabin trim. Twin’Z ditches a dashboard
completely – twin Samsung tablets control all functions. LED light strips are
embedded through door panels and super-minimalist seats, for the full trippy
rave club effect.
Twin’z
definitely doesn’t contain any paradigm-shifting technology, but Lovegrove
explains that the idea was to demonstrate the technical capabilities of
parametric design and fabrication with regards to cars.
