Renault CEO Luca de Meo pledges to remove all combustion Renault models by 2030.
Renault will go all-electric in Europe by 2030, accelerating a previous plan to achieve 90 per cent EV sales in the region by that date.
Automotive News Europe quotes CEO Luca de Meo as telling reporters today: “Renault will be 100 per cent electric in 2030 in Europe”, imposing a deadline that matches those set by Ford, Peugeot and Fiat, to name a few.
The announcement came as part of a progress report to a small group of French reporters on de Meo’s radical ‘Renaulution’ transformation strategy for the Renault Group, which will see the company launch 24 new vehicles by 2025, expand its EV offering and reinvent Alpine as an EV-only performance brand.
Importantly, however, de Meo forecasted that value-oriented Dacia (which might be offered in Australia this half of the current decade) will go all-electric “at the last possible moment” to maintain its affordable pricing structure, possibly after 2030 if the conditions are not right.
The announcement comes as Renault prepares to launch the new Megane E-Tech electric, 5 supermini and 4 compact crossover as the first additions to its new-era EV family. A further two pure-EVs are due by 2025.
More recently, Renault Group’s R&D boss Gilles le Borgne condemned the European Union’s proposed 2035 ban on hybrid vehicles, arguing that 2040 was a more realistic deadline given the rate of infrastructure development and the relative cost of EVs today.
Today, ANE reports, de Meo said: “We have an obligation to participate in the transition” to carbon-neutrality across the industry, hence the accelerated EV transition timeframe.
Renault will not reveal its full 2021 results until 18 February, but de Meo told reporters that since the transformation plan was implemented, fixed costs have been lowered by €2 billion (AUD$3.15bn), hybrid sales have climbed to 60 per cent of volume and development time has been slashed by 25 per cent.
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