Beautiful concept cars: the Renault Dezir concept

Say what you want about underarm hygiene, the French know sexy.  Renault‘s all-electric concept, the Dezir, is no exception. It’s a radical design, and some of its features remind me of Mazda’s UFO-like Kizashi concept, but it has enough curve to keep it looking like it’s from earth. If the shape and menacing face aren’t enough to get your attention, it has some trick reverse-butterfly doors. 

The aggressive body might remind you a little of Audi’s e-tron, but the power plant is actually quite practical. The all-electric powertrain only has 150hp and a mild 166lb ft. of torque. This might make you roll your eyes and say “next” but think about it, do we all need (and can we all afford) an electric supercar with 8,000hp and headlights made of diamond embryos? No.

This has the face of a super exotic and the powertrain of a commuter. In the past I would call that false advertising, but if I was looking to spend Prius money on a car to get around town, I’d drive this over a Nissan Leaf any day of the week. And it still hits 60 mph in under 5 seconds, so I’m betting it’s not a snooze-fest to drive.

Performance statistics

The car is 155.3 inches or 4,225 mm in length and 77.5 inches or 1,968 mm in width. The height is 45.8 inches or 1,163 mm. The drag coefficient of the car is just 0.25 and the car has a wheelbase of 101.7 inches or 2,582 mm with a ground clearance of 4.3 inches or 110 mm. Weighing 880 kg this two-seater coupe has an electric synchronous motor mounted at the middle. This motor develops 150 hp and 226 Nm of torque.

A direct drive transmission which has a reducer and an active differential is used for transmitting the power with the car being a rear wheel drive. Though the electric motor fitted on this car does not on its own boast of high performance, the overall design of the car being made of tubular steel has led to the car being quite light weight, something that ensures the car accelerates from 0 to 62 mph in 5 seconds flat. For battery pack the car comes with a 24 kWh Li-ion battery set and a Kinetic Energy Recovery System or KERS system. This allows for 100 miles or 160 km of drive on a single full charge. The battery could be charged to about 80 percent level in just 20 minutes time using the Renault’s Quick Drop fast-charger set.

I thank Renault for proving sexy doesn’t have to be crazy fast or crazy expensive. People on a budget want to look good too.  Time will only tell if they actually have the courage to build it!