The French automakerRenaultwants to find its way back on the road to success with a sharper savings system and the conversion to a software-driven technology group. The new CEO Luca de Meo (53) explained on Thursday his restructuring program with the name “Renaulution”, with which he wants to increase the profitability of the troubled group vigorously in order to be in the fierce competition for one of the top places in the Electromobility to keep up.
De Meo relies less on mass than its predecessors and wants to achieve a return – also by relying more on software. “We will evolve from a car company that works with technology to a technology company that works with cars and will generate at least 20 percent of its sales with services, data and energy trading by 2030,” said de Meo, who has been at the since July 2020 Head of Renault has been with us for many years before that Volkswagen had worked.
As French media report in relation to de Meo’s presentation, de Meo is clearly saying goodbye to the earlier mass goals of his killed predecessor Carlos Ghosn, who Renault in association with Nissan and pushed Mitsubishi to become a large mass manufacturer. De Meo had already announced that it would focus more on value creation and less on sales figures. Now he said, according to the press release: “In future, the company will no longer measure its performance by market shares or sales figures, but by profitability, funds and the efficiency of investments.” That sounds like a timetable similar to that of Carlos Tavares (62) when he took office as head of PSA (Peugeot, Citroën, Opel) successfully implemented.
There is, however, one important exception to this: De Meo is combative when it comes to electric models. With the Zoe, the French have one of the best-selling Electric cars in Europe in the program, in Germany is the car Electric sales king by a clear margin. De Meo wants to further strengthen this area: by 2025, the Renault brand wants to introduce seven new fully electric and seven hybrid models, which should then be the greenest drive mix of all manufacturers in Europe.
The legendary Renault 5, which is to be resurrected as a purely electric car, is also being revived. “Our electric vehicles are very profitable,” said de Meo according to the “automobile week“You are, so to speak, our life insurance”.
With such announcements, de Meo positions himself very clearly against his former employer Volkswagen. Because Herbert Diess (62) also gave the Wolfsburg-based car company the motto of wanting to become the market leader in electric cars.
Dacia closer to Lada, less for research and development
De Meo also wants to differentiate the brands more clearly: Renault is to be the brand of the “Nouvelle Vague” in the future, that is, to attract attention with innovations and modernity and to be a leader in electromobility. Dacia should work more closely with the Russian brand Lada, and strengthen its “robust and solid” character.
In the course of the conversion, Renault is to achieve the savings target of two billion euros set by 2022 more quickly and reduce costs further – by three billion euros by 2025. Investments in research and development are to be reduced from 10 percent of sales to below 8 percent by then. At least ten of the two dozen new car models planned by 2025 should be pure electric cars.
Renault had already announced savings of two billion euros within two years, including a reduction of 15,000 jobs and a restructuring of the plants. The French want – like the Japanese partner with whom they are intertwined Nissan – Turn back the expansion driven by the slain CEO Carlos Ghosn (66), which was at the expense of profitability.
The two car companies were already considered ailing when the corona pandemic broke out last year. In the opinion of stockbrokers, they have so far lacked a plan to use the synergies from the alliance, which also includes the Japanese car maker Mitsubishi, and to share the investments for the switch to electromobility and digitalization.