PARIS -- Renault Group’s side of the planned Horse internal-combustion JV with Geely and Aramco has begun operations, with 9,000 employees, eight manufacturing sites and three research centers.
Horse was announced in November 2022 by Renault CEO Luca de Meo in November 2022, with Zhejiant Geely Holding Group as an initial 50-50 partner through the Chinese company’s Aurobay engine unit. Aramco, the Saudi national energy company, signed a letter of intent in March to join.
As part of a sweeping reorganization announced by de Meo, Renault’s EV activities will be concentrated in France in a separate company called Ampere that is expected to go public in the first half of 2024. At the same time, Horse’s activities will be outside of France, in lower-wage countries such as Argentina, Romania, Spain and Turkey.
Other automakers are also weighing how to manage their internal-combustion businesses as EVs gain market share. Electric vehicles have fewer moving parts and require fewer workers to build, raising concerns about mass layoffs in the coming decades.