Renault’s newly hived-off mobility company, Mobilize, has appointed ex-Dacia and Lada designer Jean-Philippe Salar as its design director.
Salar will take over from Patrick Lecharpy, who is retiring after 30 years at parent company Renault. Salar will report to Fedra Ribeiro, chief operating officer for Mobilize, and Laurens van den Acker, the Renault Group design boss who won Autocar’s 2019 Sturmey award for forward-thinking vehicle design.
Lecharpy was charged with styling the brand’s early efforts: the Duo two-seater, the Solo single-seater and a portable street-side EV charger designed to enhance urban environments.
“I would like to wish a warm welcome to Jean-Philippe Salar as he joins our family of ‘Mobilizers’,” said Ribeiro. “His experience will be hugely valuable to Mobilize, a brand that must think differently and take account of the entire mobility ecosystem in everything it does.”
After graduating in 1996 in Paris, Salar began his career as an exterior designer for Renault’s utility vehicles.
His new role at Mobilize is the latest in a string of appointments at Renault, Dacia and Lada, which is now no longer part of the Renault Group. At Renault, he was responsible for the third-generation Renault Clio and its RS variant, before contributing to various iterations of the Renault Mégane hatchback.
In 2013, Salar’s work in South Korea as project manager at Renault Samsung Motors included leading the design teams for the development of the Renault Koleos for the Korean market.
At Lada, he was appointed as head of design, where he contributed to the restyling of the Niva, and before that he worked in Romania at Dacia and oversaw the development of the new Dacia Duster, Dacia Sandero and Dacia Jogger range.
Van den Acker said of Salar: “His extensive experience in the international market, his vision of mobility, his creativity and his enthusiasm will help us respond to the challenge posed by the future of mobility through ever more innovative and flexible solutions.”