MILAN – “Maximum speed: 180 per hour”. Renault’s announcement comes at the shareholders’ meeting, a place dedicated to major strategic decisions. Luca De Meo has chosen this location to announce another of the radical turning points that must transform the French company into a more efficient company in line with the times. The goal is to improve the “compatibility” between vehicles and the environment by embracing the fundamental issues, which are pollution and safety, and the path chosen is to intervene on the speed front. No limits to the powers, of course, but the decision to “stop” the performance of the new models at the maximum speed of 180 km / h; intention that has a symbolic value but not only.
The decision makes news because it officially breaks with a culture that identifies the power and (in some cases) the prestige of a car with the maximum speed it is able to reach. This will no longer be the case for Renault and all its new models, regardless of other performance, will not be able to exceed that threshold which, however, remains well above the pace that the vast majority of users normally take on the fastest motorways.
Self-restraint by law (which has been in place in Japan for some time and recently also embraced by Volvo) is nothing new. Indeed, it could be considered a constant in the history of the automobile (just think that at the origins in some countries motor vehicles had to be preceded by a foot relay), based on the obvious consideration that the danger increases exponentially with speed. Similarly, consumption and emissions spike at high speeds (for this reason in 1988 the then minister Enrico Ferri had introduced the infamous decree of the limit to 110 km / h on the motorway).
From a current perspective, Renault’s decision is perfectly consistent with an evolution of mobility aimed at the progressive improvement of safety standards, energy saving and emission limitation, and in line with the spread of battery-powered vehicles for which the “waste ”Of energy at high speeds heavily affects range.
A perspective that not everyone likes and, perhaps also for this reason, Renault has specified that in the suit of the group, the Alpine brand will be free to continue expressing its character by speeding on the road even above 180 km / h.
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