In 2012, with its 100% electric little Zoe, Renault was a pioneer on the Old Continent. Afterwards ? Like other French and European manufacturers, the company has left the field open to newcomers, including the American Tesla, which has long been viewed with condescension. The Dieselgate scandal (also known as the “Volkswagen affair”), the spectacular effects of global warming and the insolent success of… Tesla have suddenly awakened the sleeping beauties: Renault Group and Stellantis are now storming their green conscience to take their share of the 7 .8 million electric vehicles put into circulation in the world last year. That is already 11% of total sales, all fuels combined.
Starting after Renault, but driven in recent months by the success of the Fiat 500e – 4th sale in the category last year in Europe (where 1.56 million sold) – and the Peugeot e-208, first in France (where 219,755 were purchased), Stellantis is “reinventing itself” in an emergency, in the words of Sandrine Bouvier, the boss of its e-mobility department. The trigger ? “Community regulations, which tightened considerably after Dieselgate, she explains. We had to speed up in a few years: if it goes fast, it is simply because we have to go fast. our models for individuals sold in Europe will be electric.”
For its part, Renault Group relies on the anteriority of the aging Zoe, which will oust in 2024 the highly anticipated R5 new way. It is also betting on its low-cost brand Dacia which, in February, marketed more of its Springs in France than Stellantis of e-208 or Fiat 500e.
The sign that a new match is launched, that of lower prices? On this battlefield, it was Volkswagen AG who fired first, multiplying the announcements, including that, still hypothetical, of a next model at less than 20,000 euros – cheaper than the Dacia Spring itself. . Tesla followed him to his floor, the top of the range, to outpace the Chinese manufacturers, including the giant BYD, who are carving out cruppers for him in the Middle Kingdom. As for the future R5, according to the first estimates, it should be around 25,000 euros.
Bring order
But Renault Group is not content to hunt for prices. Like Stellantis and many of its competitors, the former Régie had to change jobs. Or, rather, broaden its palette, like Mobilize, its very young sector “dedicated to mobility”, whose Energy sector, for example, has nothing to do with engines and everything with the different charging offers. , whether on the road, at work or at home.
“In the midst of an energy revolution”, according to the head of the department, Corinne Frasson, Mobilize, and through it Renault Group, is thus striving to restore some order in a still immature market – “adolescent”, corrects the young woman smiling. Quite a symbol: in addition to manufacturing them, the manufacturer helps companies and individuals to refuel their new electric cars – just as it helps them to car-share them, rent them or subscribe to them. Times change, the automotive industry follows.