Gérard Detourbet (28 September 1946 – 5 December 2019) was a French automotive manager at

Renault Renault S.A., commonly referred to as Groupe Renault ( , , , also known as the Renault Group in English), is a French Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer established in 1899. The company curr ...

, where he was Managing Director of the Renault–Nissan Alliance "Alliance A Segment Development Unit".

Career

Detourbet was a university mathematics lecturer before joining Renault's computer training center in 1971. Later, he ran through a variety of positions within the Renault Group. These included being responsible for the development of the body of the

Renault 25 The Renault 25 is an executive car produced by the France, French automotive industry, automaker Renault from 1983 to 1992. The 25 was Renault's Flagship#Automotive, flagship, the most expensive, prestigious, and largest vehicle in the compan ...

, a product manager for engines, and later for the

drive train A drivetrain (also frequently spelled as drive train or sometimes drive-train) or transmission system, is the group of components that deliver mechanical power from the prime mover to the driven components. In automotive engineering, the drive ...

s. From 2003, after Renault purchased the

Automobile Dacia S.C. Automobile Dacia S.A., commonly known as Dacia (), is a Romanian car manufacturer that takes its name from the historical region that constitutes present-day Romania. The company was established in 1966. In 1999, after 33 years, the Roman ...

company from the

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

n government, Detourbet was responsible for the development of the X90 ( Logan) project, and concentrated on the production of modern, but very cheap entry-level cars for

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountain ...

and developing countries. In particular, the development of the

Renault Kwid The Renault Kwid is a crossover city car produced by the French car manufacturer Renault, initially intended for the Indian market and launched in 2015. In 2017, an improved Brazilian version was introduced for Latin American markets. Its bat ...

under his leadership has been widely seen as groundbreaking.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Detourbet, Gerard 1946 births 2019 deaths French engineers Renault people