A few days after having unveiled its broad restructuring plan, Renault says a little more about his strategy. The French automaker plans to quadruple its production of electric vehicles in France by 2024, said President Jean-Dominique Senard on Friday, June 19, at the general meeting of shareholders.
The group, he added, did not request a postponement of European targets for CO2 emissions, despite the coronavirus crisis. Because the electric must remain an important lever for the group, he said.
Create a center of excellence in the North
The automaker announced Thursday May 28 to its unions that it plans to cut 15,000 jobs worldwide, including 4,600 in France, as part of a savings plan of more than two billion euros on three years which will go through a restructuring of its engineering and its production tool.
In France, this plan “would be organized around strategic centers of activity for the future: electric vehicles, utility vehicles, the circular economy and innovation with high added value. These major regional centers of excellence based in France would constitute the heart of the group’s reconquest, “announces Renault. In Douai (North), Renault plans to create an “optimized center of excellence for electric and light commercial vehicles in the north of France”, in particular by repatriating the assembly of the Kangoo ZEs, currently carried out nearby, in Maubeuge (North ).
On the same theme: [Map] Where are Renault’s French production and engineering sites located
Batteries and electric motors
Renault will also embark on electric power in another way: by joining the European electric battery program, said the French head of state after a visit to the equipment manufacturer’s factory. Valeo in Etaples (Pas-de-Calais) on May 26. Formed by Total, via its subsidiary Saft, and PSA, the ACC (Automotive Cells Company) joint venture received the green light from the European Commission last February with the aim of producing batteries for one million vehicles per year in Europe, or around 10 to 15% of the market, here 2030.
Renault, Emmanuel Macron had continued, also decided to “develop the new electric motor of the alliance in Cléon (Seine-Maritime) project initially planned in Asia”.
with Reuters (Gilles Guillaume and Sarah White; Edited by Henri-Pierre André)