Electric car: Renault reactivates without overbidding on Volkswagen

After several weeks of distilling the information that should shape its electrification strategy, Renault has come to the heart of the matter this Wednesday morning... This plan was very much awaited at a time when the major groups announced large electrification plans, to the point that some of them even decided to change their industrial model by adopting the Tesla model (vertical, upstream and downstream integration). Luca de Meo, on the other hand, chose not to go so far, without minimising the technological ambitions of his strategy.

Under a highly trendy graphic theme, called ElectroPop, the press conference of the French automotive group focused on detailing, in a very technical jargon, the technological trade-offs and innovations that must reposition the group in the ecosystem of the electric car. Many experts have tried to popularize barbarian acronyms (BMS, NMC, EESM...), and elements of polytechnic languages (axial flow, synchronous machines with winding rotor...). Which must lead Renault back to being the innovative group it used to be in the field of electromobility.

Beautiful remains

Because Renault seems to have lost the lead it had gained a decade ago when its then boss, Carlos Ghosn, launched one of the first in Europe (and under mockery), a 100% electric car in Europe with the Zoe. "false" replies Luca de Meo, its Managing Director, who recalled that Renault has invested 5 billion euros in this technology, has accumulated 10 billion kilometres driven through its fleet of 400,000 cars... For the new boss, Renault still has some good leftovers on electrification to launch a very ambitious Phase 2, but above all at ultra-competitive costs, while committing an additional €10 billion in investments over the next ten years.

Renault therefore believes that it has expertise already invested in improving its current electric motors and creating a new range, this time without rare earths. The group also relies on a new type of axial flow engines to improve the performance of hybrid engines. It will rely on a French startup, Whylot, to put this engine into service as early as 2025.

In addition, Renault has an idea to recover the part of the added value that will evaporate through the scale between thermal and electric cars by reinternalizing various elements of power electronics (inverter, converter, on-board charger...). It is also at stake in the strategy around batteries, which Luca de Meo hopes to halve the price in ten years while launching a new generation (in partnership with the French startup Verkor) with a much higher energy density for a range of higher-end or sports models.

Nissan must get into the dance

Finally, two platforms will be created to design two ranges of cars. The CMF-BEV will serve as a basis for building "affordable" cars. Renault estimates that it can manufacture an electric car one third cheaper than the current Zoe. The CMF-EV platform will attack segments C and D, two territories where Renault is structurally weak but which Luca de Meo has put at the top of its winback priorities.

Except that for the equation to succeed, Nissan, his ally of which he owns 43%, must enter the dance because, according to Renault's communication, 3 million cars must be amortized on the first platform in 2025, and 700,000 on the second. However, Nissan has not yet announced anything, and Luca de Meo himself refused to comment on the Japanese group's share during the question and answer session.

Read also Electric Voytime: Act II of Renault and Stellantis

In short of models and novelties (the current Zoé is more than ten years old, despite its three restyling), Renault has fallen behind the other generalist manufacturers who have deployed in less than two years a plethora of new products in all segments (sedans, SUV, etc.). In addition, the group is under pressure after the spectacular announcements of Volkswagen decided to reverse its industrial model by adopting vertical integration (charging terminal management, software control) or Audi, Fiat or Volvo which will switch to 100% electric around 2030.

A timid 2025 target, 2030 more ambitious

But Luca de Meo does not want to compete and prefers to concentrate in particular on an industrial aspect with the redeployment of industrial capacity around Electricity (five factories in the Hauts-de-France from which 400,000 cars will be released a year). As far as the range strategy is concerned, the plan includes about ten models by 2025.

If a hole is missing in the racket, it could well be the software master. For experts, the real technological break brought about by the Tesla model lies in this expertise, which makes it possible to optimize the electronic management of batteries, engines and interior equipment. The same one that missed ID.3 when Volkswagen launched it in the summer of 2020 and led Herbert Diess to topple the table in front of his board of directors. Luca De Meo, a defector from the Volkswagen Group, is aware of such issues. In fact, it has launched its software Republic to reflect, for the time being, on the ecosystem of connectivity of tomorrow.

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