Electric and internal combustion cars are "two different sports," Renault Group CEO Luca de Meo said, and there is an industrial rationale for carving out the two powertrains as separate businesses.
Renault and other automakers – including Ford, Geely and Mahindra -- are weighing spinoffs of their EV activities, seeking to attract the kind of capital that has driven Tesla to a trillion-dollar valuation, gain agility to develop new technologies, and manage the likely end of internal-combustion sales in the next few decades.
Others – notably Stellantis, Volkswagen and Daimler -- have said they plan to manage the transition to electrification with the same business structure.