Among manufacturers, the term minivan is still taboo. Renault’s future electric family, expected in 2024, may be called Scénic – the name of one of those “monovolume” models which met with great success in the years 1990-2000, before experiencing an irremediable decline -, its designers look elsewhere and boast of having imagined a “new morphology” for this model. They evoke a common family vocation, but refuse to see it as an heir to Espace, figurehead of a rounded design and standard bearer of automotive values. “non-aggressive” (today we would say “benevolent”) from the very end of the 20the century.
However, if we disregard its more angular shapes and its well-marked bonnet – so many signs of the changes instilled by Gilles Vidal, Peugeot’s former style boss –, the future Scénic, unveiled at the end of May in its version almost definitive, can hardly deny its origins. The voluminous passenger compartment, the flat floor, the interior layout (still at the prototype stage), which gives pride of place to the passengers in the back, or the above-average glazed surface evoke the characteristics dear to the minivan, including the diamond brand was the initiator in Europe. Nothing to do with the limited interior space of a sedan or that of a high-pitched SUV, which is generally disappointing.
Renault, whose advertising expression has just brought back to the agenda the slogan of “cars to live” born in 1984 and which marked a golden age of the manufacturer, seems to have developed a subliminal minivan. Hard on the outside but soft on the inside, its taut exterior lines conceal a family cocoon. Gilles Vidal does not completely deny. “The next Scénic will offer all the advantages of an MPV, but not its exterior appearance”, recognizes the new head of design. “ People don’t buy minivans anymore. They want cars that are fluid, technological and have a different personality. »
Excellent habitability-to-footprint ratio
At BMW, bearer of a very different automotive culture, it has not escaped either that the outdatedness of the minivan did not mean that the demand for functional family cars (before being statutory) had disappeared. Very livable and knowing how to keep its distance from the sacrosanct sportiness that the brand cultivates, without ever being boring, the Series 2 Active Tourer (which some considered destined to be only a test run) was produced at 400 000 units since 2014. It has just been renewed.
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