Renault is rushing to keep up with rivals to tap growing demand for electric cars. This will be in collaboration with Nissan to manufacture the new models. The French automaker is mulling a new full-electric car. It will be bigger than its Zoe, that could compete with models including Tesla’s Model 3 and Volkswagen’s ID3.
Partnership with Mitsubishi
The car may be produced on a common platform with Nissan and third alliance partner Mitsubishi Motors. According to Emmanuel Bouvier, commercial director of Renault’s electric car business. “We are working on developing the range of our lineup to cover all segments with electric cars,” said Bouvier. He added that the new vehicle could also be derived from an existing model.”It’s early to say we will compete with Tesla, but planning to cover a larger share of the market,” he said.
Renault and Nissan moved early among mass-market automakers to offer electric vehicles with the Zoe and the Nissan Leaf. The only drawback was that the models lack major shared components or underpinnings. The prospect of the automotive partnership producing new cars together has been under a cloud ever since the downfall of former leader Carlos Ghosn. His November arrest threw deep tensions in the two-decade-old alliance into the open
Automakers are rapidly expanding their electric offerings to keep up with tougher emissions standards globally. While sales are growing, full-electric vehicles remain a niche product with buyers put off by limited driving ranges and patchy charging points.
Renault is rolling out a new version of the Zoe with an extended range next year. And it is also working on a more affordable vehicle, Bouvier said. The K-ZE low-cost car it built for China, partly based on the Indian Kwid model, could eventually be used to build a European affordable all-electric vehicle, he said.
Demand for the new Zoe is expected to be strong, Bouvier said, with Renault pursuing plans to have eight electric models in its lineup by 2022. Previous plans by the alliance from 2017 indicated 12 new battery-electric cars by 2022 across Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi.
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