The French carmaker Renault is building on traditional small car models of the past with its electric car offensive.
The decommissioned in the 90s to R5 as one of ten planned 2025 models as electric car rise again, the Volkswagen rival announced on Wednesday. The compact car will cost a third less than the Renault Zoe, so far the top-selling electric vehicle in Europe, which is currently losing market share to the newer VW ID.3. At the same time, Renault set itself higher goals when switching from combustion to electric cars. By 2030, nine out of ten cars sold or a total of one million new cars are to be purely battery-electric – previously, the 90 percent target included hybrid models that combine combustion and electric motors and are not emission-free.
“Today there is a historic acceleration of the Renault Group’s electric car strategy,” said Luca de Meo, who was last head of the Spanish brand Seat in the Volkswagen Group before moving to France. In the next five years, ten billion euros are to flow into the electrification of the offer. The interim goal for 2025 is a sales share of two thirds for e-cars and hybrid cars. The “4ever” model will also be reminiscent of the R4 panel van, also a classic of the last century, as insiders said. So that the emission-free compact cars are not more expensive than combustion engines, Renault, like Volkswagen and other car manufacturers, relies on uniform technical platforms on which several variants are based. This means that large quantities can be produced. At the same time, costs are reduced.
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Renault, shaken in recent years by the scandal surrounding former CEO Carlos Ghosn, was overtaken by VW as the market leader in the still small market for e-cars last year. While the market share of the VW brand in Europe rose to 25 from 14 percent last year, that of Renault and its partners Nissan and Mitsubishi fell to 19 from 23 percent.The Renault share is currently losing 2.37 percent in Paris to 34.255 euros.
