Gilles Vidal (born ca. 1972) is a French car designer, appointed Director of Style by Peugeot at the start of 2010. He was responsible for the design direction of the 2010's at Peugeot. He is currently the design director at Renault, having joined the brand since 2020.
Vidal received his diploma from the Art Center College of Design in Vevey (Switzerland) and joined Citroën in 1996. Here he worked with Jean-Pierre Ploué and was responsible for the restyled Berlingo, the rally version of the Saxo and the “Osmose” (Osmosis) concept car. [1] In 2005 he assumed overall responsibility for Citroën's concept cars.
After his boss at Citroën, Jean-Pierre Ploué, was promoted to a position of responsibility for styling of both the Citroën and Peugeot brands in 2009, [2] Gilles Vidal assumed responsibility for concept cars in the Peugeot style, supervising the Peugeots BB1 and SR1. He took a major part in defining the new identity for the Peugeot brand which would be unveiled at the beginning of 2010, and in January 2010 Ploué appointed him Peugeot Design Director.
Vidal is responsible for the current design direction at Peugeot and is responsible for the New 208, New 2008, 3008, 5008, 508 and 508 SW. His departure from Peugeot was announced in July 2020. He later joined Renault as their design director that same year.
Citroën is a French automobile brand. The "Automobiles Citroën" manufacturing company was founded in March 1919 by André Citroën. Citroën is owned by Stellantis since 2021 and previously was part of the PSA Group after Peugeot acquired 89.95% share in 1976. Citroën's head office is located in the Stellantis Poissy Plant in Saint-Ouen-sur-Seine since 2021 and its offices studies and research in Vélizy-Villacoublay, Poissy (CEMR), Carrières-sous-Poissy and Sochaux-Montbéliard.
Peugeot is a French brand of automobiles owned by Stellantis.
Simca was a French automaker, founded in November 1934 by Fiat S.p.A. and directed from July 1935 to May 1963 by Italian Henri Pigozzi. Simca was affiliated with Fiat and, after Simca bought Ford's French subsidiary, became increasingly controlled by Chrysler. In 1970, Simca became a brand of Chrysler's European business, ending its period as an independent company. Simca disappeared in 1978, when Chrysler divested its European operations to another French automaker, PSA Peugeot Citroën. PSA replaced the Simca brand with Talbot after a short period when some models were badged as Simca-Talbots.
The Citroën C3 is a supermini car (B-segment) produced by Citroën since April 2002. It replaced the Citroën Saxo in the model line up, and is currently in its third generation. The third generation model made its appearance in June 2016, and went on sale in January 2017.
Talbot is a dormant automobile marque introduced in 1902 by British-French company Clément-Talbot. The founders, Charles Chetwynd-Talbot, 20th Earl of Shrewsbury and Adolphe Clément-Bayard, reduced their financial interests in their Clément-Talbot business during the First World War.
The Peugeot 407 is a large family car (D-segment) produced by the French automaker Peugeot, from 2004 to 2011. It was available in saloon, coupé and estate variants, with both diesel and petrol engines. The petrol engines ranged from 1.8 to 3.0 litres displacement, whereas the diesels ranged from 1.6 to 3.0 litre engines.
The Talbot Samba is a city car manufactured by the PSA Group in the former Simca factory in Poissy, France, and marketed under the short-lived modern-day Talbot brand from 1981 to 1986. Based on the Peugeot 104, it was the only Talbot not inherited from Chrysler Europe, engineered by PSA alone. It was also the last new Talbot to be launched. Its demise in 1986 was effectively the end of the Talbot brand for passenger cars. Launched initially as a three-door hatchback, it was also for some time the only small car available in a factory-ordered cabrio body style, and the most economical car in Europe.
The PSA Group, legally known as Peugeot S.A. was a French multinational automotive manufacturing company which produced automobiles and motorcycles under the Peugeot, Citroën, DS, Opel and Vauxhall brands. On 18 December 2019, PSA and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) announced that they had agreed to the terms of a binding $50 billion merger. On 16 July 2020, both companies announced the new name for their merged operations, Stellantis. The deal closed on 16 January 2021. Stellantis is now the third largest automotive manufacturing company, behind Volkswagen and Toyota.
The Citroën C4 is a small family car/compact car produced under their Citroën marque, from the French automaker PSA Group, and later Stellantis. It was positioned to be the successor to the Citroën Xsara. The first generation production started in September 2004.
Moray S. Callum is a Scottish automobile designer who was Vice President, Design for Ford Motor Company, having retired on 1 May 2021. His elder brother Ian Callum was the Design Director of Jaguar from 1999 to 2019.
Robert Maurice Jean Opron was a French automotive designer. He created or collaborated on numerous projects that became production cars for brands that included Simca, Renault, and Fiat. He is best known for his work at Citroën, which he joined in 1962 and where he became responsable de style in 1964.
Paul Bracq is an automotive designer noted for his work at Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Citroën, and Peugeot.
Events from the year 2001 in France.
The DS 5 is a compact executive hatchback which was designed and developed by the French automaker Citroën, and launched in the market in Europe in November 2011. It was the third model in the premium sub brand DS. Released as the Citroën DS5, the car was relaunched as the DS 5 in 2015, following Citroën's decision to rebadge its DS models and market them under the brand DS.
The 2010 Paris Motor Show took place from 2 October to 17 October 2010, in Paris expo Porte de Versailles.
Jean-Pierre Ploué is a French car designer, born in 1962, known for bringing the Citroën marque back to strength and restoring its reputation for innovation and strong individualistic styling.
France was a pioneer in the automotive industry and is the 11th-largest automobile manufacturer in the world by 2015 unit production and the third-largest in Europe. It had consistently been the 4th-largest from the end of World War II up to 2000. It is 16 % of sales of French manufactured products.
Paul-Marie Pons was a French naval engineer who became a senior civil servant. He is remembered for the Pons Plan which restructured the French automotive industry in the second half of the 1940s.
Carlo Bonzanigo is an Italian and Swiss car designer who has worked for many years for the famous Italian Design House Pininfarina and for Citroën Design.
Stellantis N.V. is a multinational automotive manufacturing corporation formed in 2021 on the basis of a 50–50 cross-border merger between the Italian–American conglomerate Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) and the French PSA Group. The company is headquartered in Amsterdam. As of 2022, Stellantis is the fourth largest automaker by sales behind Toyota, Volkswagen Group, and Hyundai Motor Group.
This article incorporates information from the equivalent entry in the French, Wikipedia.
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