Renault's new engineering centre, officially inaugurated in Bucharest yesterday, will develop both models based on the Logan's technological platform, as well as Renault models.
Renault Technologie Roumanie (RTR) will be able to develop cars for the Renault and Dacia brands at full capacity in two or three years. Until then, engineers at the centre will work on new versions of Logan.
"RTR now has teams of engineers working on new versions; both based on the Logan platform and the Kangoo. Within two or three years, we will be able to operate complete projects for cars, especially for those based on the Logan platform, and for other low-cost models," said Philippe Prevel, RTR's general manager.
For instance, the engineers in Romania have developed such elements as the cooling system and the electrical systems for the new Logan models.
The Dacia Logan Pick-up model, first showcased at the Auto Show in Bucharest last autumn, was 40% designed by RTR, while the first prototypes were assembled at the plant in Mioveni.
At RTR, the Renault engineers are working on a new version of the Kangoo utility vehicle, a model that was officially launched on the domestic market last month. Prevel did not reveal whether the new version was sporting an all-wheel drive and a SUV-like appearance or not, given that previous Kangoo iteration had offered such a model.
Renault official says the new Kangoo version on which the Romania engineers are working will be unveiled next year, or in 2010 at the latest.
"Over 50% of the technical side of the future Dacia SUV model was developed in Romania at the engineering centre, as was the facelift of the future Logan," Prevel said. The French company has invested more than two million euros in this centre.
Renault Technologie Romania will operate in three locations - in Bucharest, where the training offices and the design centre for Central Europe are located, in Pitesti, where the engineering centres operates and in Titu, where a test centre comprising tracks and test benches will open in the second half of next year.
The new engineering centre is located in an office building in North Bucharest, and comprises 22 rooms where people receive computer aided design, foreign language and management training, and takes up more than 1,600 square metres. The number of training hours in a year will exceed 200,000.
"There are 2,000 Romanians and 70 foreigners working in the design centre, most of whom come from France and Spain. The total number of engineers will reach 3,000 by the end of 2009, as this is also Renault's second largest engineering centre in the world, after France, where more than 15,000 employees are working," Prevel added.
Renault's engineering centres in South Korea, India and Brazil employ approximately 1,000 people.
More than 60% of the engineers who work in the new centre are young graduates from Romanian technical universities. "587 people were recruited for the engineering centre in 2007, higher than the target of 550, and their number is set to increase to 612 in 2008," stated Dana Oprisan, RTR's human resources manager. RTR's training centres operates with 55 local instructors, 150 training modules and has 300 people attending its classes every month.
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