Renault AIR4
When the battleship HMS Dreadnought was launched in 1906, it was so superior that it made all other battleships instantly obsolete. This included Britain’s own vast fleet. It levelled the playing field – all countries started building this new technology at the same time. Electric Vehicles (EVs) will have the same effect on car manufacturers, although the process, which really took off in the late 2010s, is still accelerating and there are as yet no clear winners. But everybody is in the race.
The Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance has thrown its hat in the ring with a joint $26bn EV plan by Renault and Nissan, and Mitsubishi due to launch two new models in Europe, both based on existing Renault models. This money will be spent over five years on shared manufacturing platforms, batteries and operating systems. Nissan will lead the development of solid-state battery technology and Renault will launch a software-defined car in 2025.
“These are massive investments that none of the three companies could make alone,” Renault Chairman Jean-Dominique Senard said in a statement.
Renault, with its best-selling Zoe, and Nissan, with its pioneering Leaf, have been in the EV space from the beginning, but they are facing intense competition. Established EV brand Tesla is going from strength to strength, while other auto gains like Volkswagen are launching new EV models.
The Alliance will trim its number of models from the current 100 to 90, while at the same time increasing commonality to 80 per cent by 2026, from the current 60 per cent. By the end of the decade, the Alliance will have 35 electric models with 90 per cent commonality.
Renault-Nissan will also add a fifth EV platform to the current four that include the electric Kei minicar platform, the CMF-EV currently used for the Nissan Arya and the CMF-BEV for compact EVs.
Renault will invest heavily in battery supply, powertrains and new models – including ten new BEVs by 2025. Among the new models will be larger SUVs. Nissan is investing in battery technology, including solid-state. The Alliance has entered a supply deal with China’s Envision Group, which will spend over $2bn on a battery factory near the Renault plant in Douai, France, and invest in the cell making at a Nissan plant in the UK.
In May 2020 the Alliance announced a strategy called ‘Leader-Follower’, where each company will take the lead in certain regions and for some technologies while the others take a back seat. This strategy is still rather fluid, with Renault forging its own way in China.
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