The «Renaulution» All right but very quietly. While Renault CEO Luca de Meo has been promising for years to make the French manufacturer a “leader in electrification”, Here he seems to want to modulate his approach. In an interview with Echos published this Monday, July 22, he estimates that the European objective of completely banning the sale of new thermal cars by 2035 will be “complicated” to hold. Before adding: “We need a little more flexibility in the schedule.”
Having arrived at the helm of the company in July 2020, the business leader explains that “Switching from 10% market share for electric vehicles to 100% in twelve years is really very complicated”. According to him, “We are not yet on the right trajectory to reach 100% 100% electric cars by 2035.”
According to him, his request for “flexibility” calendar would be justified by an original rejection in the choice of this date, definitively negotiated between the EU Member States in October 2022 and formally adopted in March 2023. “The position of France and that of Renault Group was rather to say that 2035 was too early and that we should instead aim for 2040.”
However, he qualifies: “However, we must not exploit the current slowdown in the market to simply abandon the objective. That would be a serious strategic error.” He also hammers home that “Electrification in the automobile industry is part of progress,” what “we must not refuse progress”, and recalls that the automobile industry has “invested tens of billions of euros in the transition” towards the electric and that it is not necessary “throw them out the windows.”
“The ecosystem must move forward together”
“The question is one of rhythm,” Luca de Meo insists, emphasizing that “The majority of countries have not yet exceeded 7% of market share in electric vehicles to date.” Thus, in March 2023, Germany backtracked on its ambitions regarding thermal engines. In April 2024, the European Court of Auditors even considered that Europe was not ready, denouncing “the absence of a precise and stable roadmap” in the development of alternative fuels.
For the head of the car manufacturer, “the ecosystem must move forward together, all together,” in order to avoid mistakes. “This is what I mean when I ask for flexibility and agility.” Furthermore, its meaning, “The electric car is only one of the solutions” to decarbonize the automotive sector. It would thus be “more sensible to accelerate the renovation of the park at the same time” and of “look at what we can do in terms of fuel types.” And to conclude: “In the next ten years, there are not enough electric cars to really impact decarbonization. (…) In roulette, you can’t bet everything on one color.”
In February, Renault’s CEO had already estimated that a return to the ban on petrol and diesel cars in 2035 would be welcome but complicated. At the end of May, during the last edition of the Geneva Motor Show, he had declared that he hoped “that the ban will apply a little later, because I think we will not be able to do it without damaging the entire industry and the entire European automotive value chain.”
Source: www.liberation.fr
