François Leboine is appointed Fiat & Abarth Head of Design

[Bili]

François Leboine is appointed Fiat & Abarth Head of Design​

François Leboine joins the Stellantis Design organisation as of June 1, 2021. He will report to Jean-Pierre Ploué, Stellantis Chief Design Officer.

A graduate of the Royal College of Art and previously in charge of Renault Advanced Design, Leboine is a passionate advocate for beautiful design from the Renault Twizy to the Espace 5. Developing the Renault Clio, Captur and Dacia Sandero as Chief of Exterior Design Studio clearly illustrates his expertise in designing production cars. As Head of Advanced Design, he oversaw the creation of the Renault 5 prototype and Morphoz concept cars.

His strategic vision will be a key asset to lead the Fiat and Abarth transformation in partnership with the brands’ Chief Executive Officer, Olivier François.

Jean-Pierre Ploué, is ‘’glad to welcome a talented designer with recognised professional skills. His forward-thinking design approach and his great personality will be core strengths to lead Fiat and Abarth future changes’’.

Olivier François declares: "I am really excited to welcome François Leboine to the world of Fiat in a moment that is so full of opportunities with the power and scale of the new Group. Designing new Fiat and Abarth cars is key to expressing our full potential for customers around the world’’

François Leboine is appointed Fiat & Abarth Head of Design

François Leboine joins the Stellantis Design organisation as of June 1, 2021. He will report to Jean-Pierre Ploué, Stellantis Chief Design Officer.

www.media.stellantis.com

 

[Deckard Cain]

This guy was responsible for some nice designs at Renault. But I'm not sure if I like this frenchization of Fiat.

 

[Mopar392]

The new 500 Electric’s designer has penned a nice design
Fiat LATAM team is coming up every time with nice designs.
So, I don’t understand why Renault’s designer is taking over Fiat.

 

[Deckard Cain]

Because the merger between PSA and FCA was done with the purpose of creating synergies between the european branches of both groups.
The european side of FCA spent the last few years launching the bare minimum required for survival while PSA was very aggressive with their product launches. Now, to create synergies they will use everything that is french. Effectively the french have taken over.
This designer is quite good though. And if they bring Fiat back to its roots in Europe of launching cost competitive cars, instead of just the variations of the 500 then they'll be able to sell a lot.
Fiat is the OG price:quality brand. Skoda and Dacia followed in its footsteps and occupied that space because FCA let them. Interestingly Skoda and Dacia have some of the highest profit margins for VW, and Renault respectively. If Stellantis did the same with Fiat the other auto manufacturers in Europe would tremble because Fiat has a potential that Skoda and Dacia don't have.

If they followed a similar strategy for Fiat in Europe like they did in Brasil, Fiat would be in a much better situation. But the merger would be much more difficult to do because synergies would be delayed for more years. An Argo, Argo-SUV, a compact SUV, a 7-seat SUV, a new version of the Tipo would rocket Fiat back to the top of the sales charts.

 

[patfromigh]

This just my opinion from well outside the continental Euro-sphere. The Centoventi concept should be the next design direction for the next Fiat product. I'm not saying that all future products should follow this direction, just for this one vehicle. What the new electric Fiat 500 electric is to the 500 lineage, the Centoventi should be to the Panda lineage. Does Stellantis need a Renault designer to bring the project to fruition?

I've seen the patent drawings on the new Renault 4 electric, it looks like the 2011 Jeep Compass after the face lift. Stellantis obviously has the people in both Auburn Hills and Brazil who have been doing a great job. The Panda seems to do well and the Centoventi concept looks good.

Why the change?

 

[Deckard Cain]

Because the leadership structure implemented in Stellantis Europe comes from PSA. Hence, they are frenchifying the FCA part of Stellantis.