The Technocentre, at Guyancourt in the Yvelines region, just outside Paris, is the leading automotive R&D center in Europe.
IDENTITY
- FOUNDED IN: 1998
- ACTIVITY: Design and development of vehicles, engines, and gearboxes for Groupe Renault and the Alliance.
- WORKFORCE:
- 10,893 employees at December 31 2018
- 67 nationalities
- 22,5 % women
- 66,4% engineers and managers
- AREA: 150 hectares of land, 425,000 m2 of floor area, of which 240,000 m2 of office buildings
- ADDRESS: Technocentre, 1 avenue du Golf – 78084 GUYANCOURT (France)
- TELEPHONE: +33 (0)1 76 84 04 04
A strategic technology center
Since it was established in 1998, the Technocentre has been central to the development of Groupe Renault's future vehicles. In the future, even more so than today, it will be the nerve center of the company's design and development, its high-level technical work, its innovation, and its modernism.
A skills cluster
The center is on the scale of a small city, with 11,000 employees representing the full spectrum of professions responsible for developing the cars, engines and gearboxes for Groupe Renault and the Alliance. That means design, after-sales, research, engineering, manufacturing, quality, and more.
The site's architectural layout echoes the three main phases of vehicle development: preliminary studies, project development and prototype production.
To best meet customers’ needs, the Technocentre's employees are in constant contact with the design and engineering centers located around the world.
Cutting-edge equipment
The teams use digital design and validation tools: the Technocentre boasts, for example, five 1:1 scale virtual video and immersive visualization walls. They use these very high-tech tools to validate the perceived quality of a vehicle before it hits the streets.
Immersive and driving simulators are used by all preliminary development, engineering, design and product departments to design and approve the user interfaces and their ergonomics.
In a few months, the Technocentre will welcome ROADS, a new driving simulator for autonomous vehicles. It will be immersive so as to reproduce, as realistically as possible, varied driving experiences and complex scenarios, such as untimely lane changes and "fishtailing".
In collaborative and digital mode
Working methods are changing, and the Technocentre is in step with the times. That’s very much the aim of the e-tcr program: a "floor to ceiling" renovation and transformation designed to promote collaboration, in a modernized environment. To boost innovation and effectiveness, spaces will be open and shared, with areas where employees can shut themselves away or make phone calls, places to meet and relax, and an overall emphasis on comfort levels (ventilation, lighting, acoustics, etc.). A 50/50 split between workstations and common areas, in which digital tools play a growing role.
Work will begin towards the end of 2019.
A site that puts its environment first
Quality of life is embedded in the architecture of the Technocentre, where, like in a small town, everything is within walking distance. The varied nature of the interior and exterior landscape design, punctuated by water features, makes it an enjoyable place to work.
The Technocentre is a technology, skills and cutting-edge equipment cluster.
The Technocentre is central to the development of tomorrow's vehicles: electric, connected and autonomous cars.
