The CEO of Renault, Luca de Meo, considers that Europe has started the battle for digitization behind the United States and China, but is confident of winning the battle for the electric vehicle, the second great revolution in society. In this battle, De Meo claimed the Renault is betting on producing electric vehicles in Francewhere Renault created a platform for producing a compact electric vehicle.
“It’s a huge economic and industrial challenge. A lower-cost country could have done it. But the soul of a company is in its roots,” Luca de Meo said of Renault’s commitment to producing vehicles of the future in its plants in France. Spain, Renault’s second industrial base, has specialized, for now, in the production of hybrid models, although the outlook could change in the coming years due to the ban on the sale of combustion cars. from 2035 which is in its final phase of approval in the EU.
In an interview published by the weekly “Le Journal du Dimanche”, De Meo confirmed his intention that in 2030 the entire range of the diamond brand will be electric and assured that he is preparing the group for it. “My role is to project Renault into the future and in Europe the future is electric,” he said.
The salvation of the European car industry
The top executive of the brand felt that the bet could be the salvation of the automotive industry in Europe. “Two revolutions are taking place: ecological transition and digitization. On digitization, Europe has been slower than the Americans and the Chinese. On ecological transition, we have both cultural sensitivity and technological advantages,” he said.
Luca de Meo gave as an example of the electric mobility in which Renault is working the success of the electric Mégane, of which they sold 25,000 units in three months. He acknowledged that there was a price problem because “40% comes from the battery” and “of this percentage, 80% depends on the raw materials”, the cost of which they do not control almost all.
After the era of Carlos Ghosn, when the group sought to increase sales at all costs, De Meo opted for a “change of philosophy” which involves “prioritizing value over volume”. Although he stressed that Renault “will continue to be a popular brand” and expressed his doubts about the possibility of manufacturing top-of-the-range vehicles, he assured that his brand’s cars “have more value” therefore ” the customer shall pay their corresponding price.” “.
New Renault models
De Meo was optimistic about the future of his company, which is entering a cycle of model renewals, with 25 planned until 2026, eleven of which will be electric, such as the new R5 or the 4L, two classics that will not won’t have their new conventional version. He acknowledged that “they will be more expensive to buy, because it costs more to produce them, but not to use them”.
The former executive of Fiat, Audi or Seat indicated that Renault’s accounts last year allowed the company to be out of “emergencies” and that they are two years ahead of the strategic plan launched in January 2021, in a difficult context, with galloping inflation, the semiconductor crisis which caused them to lose some 300,000 sales or the exit from Russia which caused their shares to fall by 35%.
The group Renault suffered a strong impact on its results for the first half of 2022 due to the departure of Russia precipitated by ukrainian war. recorded some net loss of 1,666 million compared to a profit of 368 million in the same period a year earlier. Despite the losses, Renault it forecasts a rapid digestion of the loss of Russia, its second largest market behind France, and expects to improve its results at the end of 2022.