Graduated in Economics from the University of Valencia (Spain) and the KEDGE Business School in Marseille (France), Sébastien Guigues began his professional career in 2001 within the Volkswagen Group in France.
In 2004 he joined the Spanish company Seat as Fleet Sales Coordinator, later moving on to the position of regional director in France and Italy. He has subsequently held various positions of responsibility within Seat in Spain, becoming general director of Seat and Cupra in France in 2017.
A long experience, including in the Spanish market, which led him to join Renault Group Spain in 2021 as director of the Renault and Alpine brands. In November 2023, Sébastien Guigues was also appointed president of the Franco-Spanish Chamber of Commerce.
ASK: Well, the first thing is to congratulate you on the Car of the Year Award in Spain for the R5. What does this award mean for Renault? Does it have more merit for being an electric?
ANSWER: For Renault this award is a great pride, it is one of the leading awards in Spain and the fact that the Renolution banner wins it is double satisfaction, it is the first electric Car of the Year and represents one more step in the electrification of this country.
P: How do you assess Renault’s 2024 financial year results in Spain?
R: They are still to be finished, but it looks very good, we are having a good year, at the level of private cars we are growing 15%, three times more than the market. And in commercial vehicles we are leaders with a share of practically 20% with a completely renewed desire and in all with 100% electric versions.
P: What weight are electric models having in sales? Are you meeting your expectations this year?
R: In Spain at a general level it is very low, around 5%, and in Renault we are a little below, 3%, since our strong bet is the R5 that has just arrived and that will allow us to grow a lot for the year that is coming, which we will complete with the R4.
P: Are you worried about the shutdown of the electricity market for next year?
R: I don’t think so, I think it’s a bit more of a tactical break than a strategic one, because as emissions standards change for next year there are people who may need certain strategies, but the client is not affected by this new regulation. .
P: How does Renault face the Spanish market in 2025 in order to meet emissions targets?
R: We manage a budget that obviously takes into account these new emissions requirements, we are lucky that when we launched Plan Renolution three years ago to have had a double strategy, on the one hand the hybrid cars – which we also manufacture in Spain – and on the other the electric vehicles, which are part of the present but above all of the future, and hybrids and plug-in hybrids are a very important part of the present for that famous orderly ecological transition.
P: How do you see the future of Renault dealerships in Spain with the weight that the electric car should gradually take on?
R: We have always said that we saw the future as electrified, connected, autonomous, with a lot of changes in technologies, but always with the dealers. Today and tomorrow we will continue to count on our dealers, but it is true that both they and we have to adapt to new challenges, sell more electric and less thermal.
P: Renault wants to manufacture one million electric cars a year, and it is said that around 400,000 will be produced outside France. Does Spain choose to manufacture part of that surplus? Is it being worked on?
R: I think Renault Spain is very lucky because at the moment it manufactures the cars of the ordered ecological transition, which are currently the ones that are sold. The future, Spain has always been very well positioned in Renault, we have the best factories in the world, and I trust that electric will be another step forward.
P: What weight does Renault Spain have in terms of decision-making in France?
R: Spain is Renault’s second home, we have always said it, the first country where Renault went international and yes, it can be said that Spain has a special weight in the Group.
P: The avalanche of new Renault models in the last year is unprecedented, is the market ready for so much novelty or could it end up confusing the customer?
R: The truth is that launching cars is always positive. It is true that Renolution’s calendar has made us concentrate many sales on 2024, but it was the industrial ‘timing’ that existed and now it is up to commercial level to make each launch a success and that one super launch does not cover the next. But it is true that when you launch many cars the good year is the next, and that is when we should get the most out of it.
P: Does the arrival of Chinese electric cars represent a threat or a challenge for a brand like Renault?
R: It’s a challenge. Any new competitor is a new challenge and that is how you have to see it, now the challenge is the Chinese, but let’s say we play at home, the visitors are them but they are very good, and in some things we even have to be inspired by them. But in general we have solid dealer networks, more than one hundred years of experience that represents economic value, sentimental value and business value.
P: Finally, promoting the electric car market requires purchasing aid. What do you expect from the Government to really boost sales?
R: We are in almost daily meetings with them, and I believe that there is a common will to find the best way to electrify this country. Now what we have to do is finish crystallizing what is the best way to do it, if it is a Moves, if it is a Moves, improving some things… but the important thing is that there is will, that work is being done and that we are in the good way
Source: www.vozpopuli.com
