Renault CEO Luca de Meo has picked officials including a former Apple executive to help him prepare the Ampere electric-vehicle business for an initial public offering, according to people familiar with the situation.
De Meo has already selected around 15 in-house managers for the Ampere project he is leading, said the people, who asked not to be named discussing internal company matters.
Science chief Luc Julia, who co-developed Apple's Siri voice-recognition service, will focus on artificial intelligence technology, while manufacturing executive Luciano Biondo will be in charge of operations including purchasing and quality control, the people said.
The managers are still busy with the entity's carve out and will also continue in their day-to-day jobs, they said.
A spokesman for the company declined to comment.
Renault is in the middle of a sweeping overhaul to raise funds for EV development and narrow the gap with bigger rival Stellantis.
Japanese partner Nissan has pledged to buy as much as 15 percent of Ampere and Mitsubishi Motors is considering an investment. Qualcomm, the largest maker of smartphone processors, will also back the business.
"The car must now go beyond the physical object," de Meo wrote in a LinkedIn post on Thursday. "Today, it's all about connecting it to the cloud, to the digital ecosystem, and turning it into an extension of our digital spaces."
The CEO has said listing Ampere toward the end of this year would be ideal. Renault is aiming for a roughly 10 billion euros ($10.6 billion) valuation, Bloomberg reported in November.
