Renault CEO: "In Europe, the future is electric".

The Renault CEO confirmed the plan to launch eleven new electric car models by 2026, including several purely electric small cars as well as a premium electric car from the Alpine sports car subsidiary. According to de Meo, the Twingo and Clio currently account for a good 70 per cent of Renault's sales, which makes it difficult to achieve good margins "in order to stay in the race and invest". This is why the platform currently under development for the production of an electric compact car is also "a major economic and industrial challenge".

"The democratisation of the electric car will take place in Europe"
"The democratisation of the electric car will take place in Europe and will include products at affordable prices," de Meo told the newspaper. "In Europe, the future is electric". However, costs are currently rising for important materials, such as those needed for e-car batteries, the most expensive single component, accounting for a good 40 per cent of vehicle costs. And 80 per cent of that is accounted for by the raw materials, whose prices are hardly controllable. "That makes the equation difficult," de Meo said in the interview.

In addition to the electrification of powertrains - Renault wants to be a purely electric brand in Europe by 2030 - there are two other challenges, or as de Meo says: "Two revolutions are taking place: the ecological transformation and digitalisation". In terms of digitalisation, Europe has missed the boat compared to the Americans and the Chinese and urgently needs to catch up. In ecological change, on the other hand, Europe has "both cultural sensitivity and technological advantages".