PATRICK LE QUEMENT ON THE INDUSTRY NOW:

IT’S always fascinating to ask those once at the very forefront of automotive innovation their personal opinion of the industry now. There have certainly been challenges for all manufacturers, from the need to electrify, survive catastrophic supply-chain issues and adapt to wild fluctuations in the costs of raw materials, but le Quément’s reservations transcend these short-term threats and speak to something more fundamental.

“I don’t think the industry today would take any risks like we did,” he says. “SUVs have led us into a design cul-de-sac. I cannot imagine there is any design freedom left when designing SUVs, so there’s no space for true innovation. Few seem willing to put their faith behind a project that doesn’t absolutely fit the bounds of market research.’

“I’d like to see more innovation in terms of packaging. Let’s start with an electric platform. I felt that when EVs would start becoming dominant that someone would take the opportunity it offers to revolutionise packaging in a far more intelligent manner. They continue to respect the internal-combustion silhouettes, and only just swapped to electric powertrains.

“I hoped to have seen smaller, lighter cars, irrespective of the batteries, not to have these two-tonne monsters on the roads.”

Le Quément shares a sentiment of many critics in the lack of attention paid to how big EVs have become. Customer clinics insist we want lots of electric range, which means lots of batteries. But that means a high price tag, and so the car has to be loaded with equipment to compensate.

The challenges facing today’s car industry certainly aren’t easy. But he feels the brightest minds need to be leveraged and, crucially, given the space to be able to flourish, just like that in which Twingo was created. We ask le Quément whether he wished to have remained in the car industry and lead another revolution. After a sustained pause, he utters only one more syllable: “No.”