The French automaking industry has long had a reputation for turning out vehicles that appear to be built completely from scratch, as though there was not a single other car in the world from which to turn for inspiration.

Renault upholds that tradition with a couple of its prototype electric cars: the Twizy, shown above, and the Zoe, which not only have ridiculous names but are among the ugliest vehicles ever produced anywhere. Renault unveiled the concept cars last week at the Frankfurt Autoshow.

The Twizy, which looks like it has square wheels, is expected to go into production in the second half of 2011 and the Zoe in mid 2012.

As The Coyote Blog puts it: “Combine 40% French design and engineering, 40% political correctness, 10% Hello Kitty and 10% of WTF to get this new electric concept car from Renault with square wheels called the Twizy.”

Indeed, the Twizy looks like it would come out on the short end of a battle with a Big Wheel.

Of course, there’s no accounting for European tastes in general when it comes to vehicles – it’s apparently either all (Mercedes, BMW or high-performance expensive sports cars) or nothing (Yugo, Citroen or pretty much anything built behind the Iron Curtain).

More on: http://southcarolina1670.wordpress.com/2009/09/25/renault-upholds-french-auto-tradition/