PARIS -- Renault unveiled a more ambitious strategy for electric vehicles on Wednesday, betting on lower costs for batteries and new, affordable versions of its iconic small cars of the past to catch up with Volkswagen in the fast-growing sector.
The company aims to cut the cost of its batteries by 60 percent over the next decade. It also plans to lower the costs of its electric motors by 30 percent, make them more compact and extend their range.
"The Renault brand aims to have the greenest mix in the European market in 2025, with over 65 percent of electric and electrified vehicles in the sales mix and up to 90 percent battery electric vehicles mix in 2030," the company said.
The new strategy drops a reliance on hybrids to hit the target under a previous plan.
Renault plans 10 new electric models by 2025, and will use new, purpose-built electric car platforms to achieve this goal.
The automaker has previously said it will use purpose-designed electric platforms, known as CMF B-EV and CMF A, to produce small and affordable EVs. It said on Wednesday that the CMF B-EV platform would allow it to produce a vehicle at two-thirds of the cost of making its Renault Zoe EV.
"We want to democratize electric technology," CEO Luca de Meo said. "When you have a car at 20 to 25,000 euros, you have much more chance than selling a car at 45,000 euros. It's as simple as that."
The first of the new EVs will be the a full-electric version of its Megane compact car, the MeganE hatchback, which is due to go on sale in the first half of next year.
The automaker is betting that reviving iconic cars from its past as electric models will capture the imagination of today's drivers
It plans an electric version of its classic Renault 5 compact car, which was discontinued in the 1990s. At a live-streamed presentation on Wednesday, the company offered a glimpse of its new electric "4ever." Two sources close to the company said it was a revival of the Renault 4 hatchback which went out of production last century.
Unveiling the automaker's latest business plan for electric cars, de Meo said that the new EV platforms and a cluster of production sites in northern France would allow Renault to deliver electric vehicles at a lower cost.
Renault said this month it would combine three of its plants in northern France into a new legal entity, Renault ElectriCity, that will produce 400,000 vehicles a year by 2025.
Battery costs
Part of Renault’s push into affordable EVs is a pledge to lower battery-pack costs to less than $100 per kilowatt-hour in 2025, and below $80 per kilowatt-hour in 2030. Those price targets "are in line with other western automakers," said BloombergNEF analyst James Frith. "They are also within the range that we would expect for volume production of EV batteries."
Renault also plans to bolster battery recycling and work more more closely with its Japanese partners Nissan Motor Co. and Mitsubishi Motors on battery technology and EV platforms
Renault's Zoe was the biggest-selling battery electric car in its segment in Europe for years, but it's losing ground to new battery-powred rivals such as the VW ID3 compact hatchback.
Figures from database EV-Volumes.com showed that VW's share of the EV market in Europe rose to 25 percent last year from 14 percent in 2019, overtaking the Renault-Nissan alliance, whose share shrank to 19 percent from 23 percent in 2019.
De Meo, a former CEO of VW Group's Seat brand, has been tasked with helping Renault turn a new page after a troubled spell.
Former Renault boss Carlos Ghosn was ousted and arrested in Japan in 2018 on charges of financial malpractice, which he denies. Ghosn left behind a sprawling model range with low margins and Renault racked up heavy losses when global demand for cars fell.
De Meo's turnaround plan is to lay off thousands of workers, reduce the range of models, and improve cooperation between alliance partners on vehicle production.
Reuters and Bloomberg contributed to this report
