Patrick Le Quément
Patrick Gilles Marie Le Quément (born 4 February 1945) is a retired French car designer, formerly chief designer of Renault. Born in France but brought up in the United Kingdom, Le Quément holds a BA Hons. degree in Product Design from Birmingham Institute of Art and Design, and an MBA from Danbury Park Management Centre. Le Quément joined Simca of France in 1966 after graduation, but left and set up his own design business which failed. He returned to England and joined Ford in 1968 as a designer. Here his signature products included the Ford Cargo truck, and 1982's seminal Ford Sierra, ridiculed at the time for its jelly mould shape. The latter car was designed at Ford's engineering and research centre in Cologne-Merkenich, Germany. Promised promotion, he went to Detroit but returned to Europe in June 1985 when Carl Hahn, Chairman of the Volkswagen Group, invited him to set up a centre for Advance Design and Strategy. In light of poor and declining sales, Renault ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Marseille
Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the Provence region, it is located on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, near the mouth of the Rhône river. Marseille is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, second-most populous city proper in France, after Paris, with 873,076 inhabitants in 2021. Marseille with its suburbs and exurbs create the Aix-Marseille-Provence Metropolis, with a population of 1,911,311 at the 2021 census. Founded by Greek settlers from Phocaea, Marseille is the oldest city in France, as well as one of Europe's List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited settlements. It was known to the ancient Greeks as ''Massalia'' and to ancient Romans, Romans as ''Massilia''. Marseille has been a trading port since ancient ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Volkswagen Group
Volkswagen AG (), known internationally as the Volkswagen Group, is a German public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of passenger and commercial vehicles, motorcycles, engines and turbomachinery. Headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany, and since the late 2000s is a publicly traded family business owned by Porsche SE, which in turn is half-owned but fully controlled by the Austrian-German Porsche and Piëch family. The company also offers related services, including financing, leasing, and fleet management. In 2024, it was the world's second-largest automaker by sales. It has maintained the largest market share in Europe for over two decades. It ranked 11th in the 2024 ''Fortune'' Global 500 list of the world's largest companies. In 2024, Volkswagen Group was the largest company in the European Union and the largest car manufacturer in the world by revenue. The Volkswagen Group sells passenger cars under the Audi, Bentley, Cupra, Jetta, Lamborghini, Pors ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Lucky Strike
Lucky Strike is an American brand of cigarettes owned by the British American Tobacco group. Individual cigarettes of the brand are often referred to colloquially as "Luckies." Name Lucky Strike was introduced as a brand of plug tobacco (chewing tobacco bound together with molasses) by an American firm R.A. Patterson in 1871 and evolved into a cigarette by the early 1900s. The brand style name was inspired by the gold rushes of the era, and was intended to connote a top-quality blend. An urban legend claims that the name is a reference to cannabis in some cigarette packs. History The brand was first introduced by R. A. Patterson of Richmond, Virginia in 1871 as cut plug chewing tobacco and later as a cigarette. In 1905, the company was acquired by the American Tobacco Company. In 1917, the brand debuted the slogan "It's Toasted" to promote the manufacturing method of toasting — rather than sun drying — the tobacco. In an attempt to counter this popular campaign, comp ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Shiro Nakamura
is a former Japanese car designer and company executive. Nakamura served as Senior Vice President of Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. From 2006, Nakamura had been Nissan's Chief Creative Officer. He was Chief Creative Officer of Nissan, Infiniti and Datsun. Nakamura retired in 2017. Known as a hands-on creative, he goes by the nickname "Fingers". Biography Early life Nakamura was born in October 1950 in Osaka, Japan. Education and academic achievements Nakamura holds a Bachelor of Arts in industrial design from the Musashino Art University in Tokyo, Japan, along with a Bachelor of Science with distinction in Transportation Design from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. Career When Carlos Ghosn took charge of Nissan in 1999, he brought in Nakamura from Isuzu to lead the design part of Nissan's revival. According to the Forum for Corporate Communications in Tokyo, Nakamura "immediately exerted leadership in driving the design team to create distinctive and innov ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Carlos Ghosn
Carlos Ghosn (; ; ; , born 9 March 1954) is a businessman and former automotive executive. He was the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Michelin, Michelin North America, chairman and CEO of Renault, chairman of AvtoVAZ, chairman and CEO of Nissan Motors, Nissan, and chairman of Mitsubishi Motors.CNN"The Gaijin with two jobs". CNN. 7 December 2006. Ghosn began his professional career in 1978 at Michelin, Europe’s largest tire manufacturer. Over the course of 18 years at the company, he held a variety of leadership roles, including overseeing operations in South America. In 1999, following Renault's acquisition of a major stake in the struggling Japanese automaker Nissan, Ghosn moved to Japan to oversee its recovery. As chief operating officer, and later chief executive officer, he implemented a series of restructuring measures aimed at improving Nissan’s financial performance. Under his leadership, Nissan returned to profitability and strengthened its position in the global mark ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Nissan
is a Japanese multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer headquartered in Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan. The company sells its vehicles under the ''Nissan'' and ''Infiniti'' brands, and formerly the ''Datsun'' brand, with in-house performance tuning products (including cars) under the Nismo and Autech brands. The company traces back to the beginnings of the 20th century, with the Nissan ''zaibatsu'' or called Nissan Group. Since 1999, Nissan has been part of the Renault–Nissan–Mitsubishi Alliance (Mitsubishi joining in 2016), a partnership between Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors of Japan, with Renault of France. , Renault holds a 15% voting stake in Nissan, while Nissan holds the same stake in Renault. Since October 2016, Nissan held a 34% controlling stake in Mitsubishi Motors. In November 2024, Nissan reduced its stake in Mitsubishi Motors from 34% to 24%. Nissan planned to merge with Honda Motor Company in 2026, after an announcement in December 2024. However by ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Esperanto
Esperanto (, ) is the world's most widely spoken Constructed language, constructed international auxiliary language. Created by L. L. Zamenhof in 1887 to be 'the International Language' (), it is intended to be a universal second language for international communication. He described the language in ''Dr. Esperanto's International Language'' (), which he published under the pseudonym . Early adopters of the language liked the name and soon used it to describe his language. The word translates into English as 'one who hopes'. Within the range of constructed languages, Esperanto occupies a middle ground between "naturalistic" (imitating existing natural languages) and ''Constructed language#A priori and a posteriori languages, a priori'' (where features are not based on existing languages). Esperanto's vocabulary, syntax and semantics derive predominantly from languages of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European group. A substantial majority of its vocabulary (approximat ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Renault Vel Satis
The Renault Vel Satis is a five-passenger, five-door executive hatchback, manufactured and marketed by Renault from 2001-2009 over a single generation, sharing its platform with the Laguna II and Espace IV and manufactured on the same assembly line in Sandouville, France and noted for its unorthodox styling approach to the luxury segment. The Vel Satis, alongside the Vauxhall Signum, aimed to capture a new market segment. Launched at the 2001 Geneva Motor Show to replace the already discontinued Safrane, the Vel Satis followed a 1998 Paris Motor Show concept. As Renault's flagship model, it was the company's first car offered with adaptive cruise control, Renault reportedly spent €550 million developing the Vel Satis, predicting 50,000 sales across Europe in its first year. In total, over an eight year production, approximately 62,000 were manufactured. The name Vel Satis is a portmanteau of ''Velocity'' and ''Satisfaction''. Overview The Vel Satis is noted for its ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Renault Avantime
The Renault Avantime is a grand tourer marketed by the France, French manufacturer Renault, designed and manufactured by Matra, between 2001 and 2003. As a three-box styling, one-box design without Pillar (car), B-pillars, styled by Patrick Le Quément, the Avantime combined the design elements of an minivan, MPV, station wagon, estate or shooting brake with the style of a 2+2 (car body style), 2+2 coupé and elements of a convertible. The name "Avantime" is a portmanteau of the French language, French word "Avant" (meaning "ahead") and the English language, English word "time" – with the latter using the English /taɪm/ rather than French pronunciation /tiːm/. Conception and design The Avantime was designed and developed in-house by Renault affiliate Matra and was conceived by Philippe Guédon, head of the automotive division at Matra, who "believed that the children of Renault Espace, Espace owners remained loyal to the car even after they had grown up and left home ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Renault Laguna
The Renault Laguna is a large family car that was manufactured and marketed by Renault for 21 years in three body styles: hatchback, coupé, and estate. The first generation Laguna was launched in 1994, the second generation was introduced in 2000, and the third generation was built from October 2007 until 2015. Concept car The production Renault passenger models are unrelated to the concept car of the same name, the Laguna, a two-seater roadster presented by the automaker during the 1990 Paris Motor Show. The name was also previously used from 1973 to 1976 by Chevrolet, for a top-of-the-line Chevelle model, the Chevrolet Chevelle Laguna. First generation (X56; 1993) With development underway from 1987, design work under Patrick Le Quément began in 1988, with a final design approval in March 1989, and a design freeze by the beginning of 1990. Road testing commenced in 1991 and continued through 1993. The first generation Renault Laguna was unveiled in November 1993 and l ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Renault Kangoo
The Renault Kangoo is a family of vans built by Renault since 1997 across three generations. It is sold as a passenger multi-purpose vehicle or as a light commercial vehicle. For the European market, the Kangoo is manufactured at the MCA plant in Maubeuge, France. The Kangoo was also marketed as a rebadged variant by Nissan in Europe as the Nissan Kubistar (first generation), Nissan NV250 (second generation) and Nissan Townstar (third generation). In September 2012, Mercedes-Benz began marketing a rebadged variant of the second generation Kangoo as the Mercedes-Benz Citan, which is also marketed as Mercedes EQT and Mercedes T-Class for the current generation. , the electric variant, the Renault Kangoo Z.E., is Europe's top selling all-electric light commercial vehicle, with global sales of 48,821 units since its inception in 2011. __TOC__ First generation X76 (FC/KC; 1997) The first-generation Kangoo was introduced in October 1997, and was facelifted in March 2003, with ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Renault Espace
The Renault Espace () is a series of automobiles manufactured by Renault since 1984. For its first five generations, the Espace was a multi-purpose vehicle/MPV (M-segment), but it has been redesigned as a mid-size crossover SUV for its sixth generation. The first three generations of the Espace were amongst the first contemporary minivans or MPVs, and were manufactured by Matra for Renault. The fourth generation, also an MPV, was manufactured by Renault. The Renault Grand Espace is a long wheelbase (LWB) version with increased rear leg room and boot size. The fifth generation is introduced with a crossover SUV-styled while keeping its MPV classification and body style. Renault described the fifth generation Espace as a 'crossover-style MPV' which combines elements of saloon, SUV and MPV, while retaining interior space and practicality of the latter. The sixth generation debuted in 2023 as a 7-seater SUV based on the Austral. The name "espace" means "space" in French. In Febru ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |