Blocking out the sun while keeping the passenger compartment light and the temperature right isn’t easy with a traditional glass roof. But it’s not a problem in the recent Renault Rafale E-Tech full hybrid and Scenic E-Tech electric models, which come with an innovative panoramic roof that turns opaque or transparent, all the way or half the way, on request, and keeps the indoor temperature comfortable in summer as well as winter. This opacifying sunroof, Solarbay, is a joint development by Renault and Saint-Gobain Sekurit, and now a key feature in the “voitures à vivre” philosophy that the brand holds dear. Anne-Chloé Kort, Scenic E-Tech Electric Product Leader, and Gregory Launay, Rafale Product Performance Leader, tell us how Solarbay was designed to delight everyone in the car.
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MotorTranscript
00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:03 Solar Bay, of course, brings some light inside the cars.
00:15 At Renault, we constantly innovate on our life on board.
00:19 Today, we introduced this new technology
00:22 on our high-end products, such as Rafale and Scenic.
00:26 And you will see how intelligent Solar Bay is.
00:29 To enjoy the sun or to protect the cockpit,
00:32 the glass can be fully transparent or fully
00:35 opacified.
00:36 Concretely, there are four positions that you can command.
00:39 The first one is a fully transparent roof.
00:42 The second one, a fully opacified roof.
00:44 And then you have two mixed positions
00:46 on which you can dissociate the front and the rear.
00:49 For example, you can choose to have the front transparent
00:52 while the rear is opacified.
00:55 Transition from one position to another
00:58 is done through a very modern, nice animation.
01:01 So you can control very easily Solar Bay.
01:05 It can be done either through the voice command
01:07 with the system that is linked to the multimedia system,
01:11 OpenAirLink, or it can be done through a standard button
01:14 in the ceiling.
01:15 The roof is activated by an electric tension
01:19 that commands independently nine segments that
01:22 allow this very nice and modern transition effect from one
01:26 position to another.
01:28 One example, it's time for the rest for the kids.
01:31 Then you can command to have the rear fully opacified
01:35 while you still enjoy the sun in the front of the car.
01:37 Solar Bay protects against the sun,
01:40 but also protects against the variation of temperature.
01:43 So thanks to the different layers of the glass,
01:46 whatever you are in winter at minus 5
01:49 or in summer at 30 degrees, the temperature inside the car
01:53 remains the same.
01:54 Solar Bay has no physical curtain.
01:57 And this has two assets.
01:59 The first one is to keep the headroom.
02:02 So you save about 3 centimeters in the car.
02:05 And you also save some weight.
02:07 It's about 6 to 8 kilograms less.
02:11 So you are more efficient thanks to Solar Bay.
02:13 Including the voice command with the OpenAirLink system,
02:16 the ability to mix the front and the rear,
02:19 and this very modern transition effect,
02:21 Renault is democratizing this technology
02:24 with performances at the best level of the market.
02:26 And the performance is even better than luxury cars.
02:30 This is one proof more that Renault, true to its DNA,
02:34 is willing to deliver "voiture à vivre" to our customers.
02:37 This is the next-gen Renault spirit.
02:40 (upbeat music)