Renault to make a million EVs by 2030

Renault Group is stepping up its EV strategy, aiming to have 90% of its vehicles electric in 2030 under its eWays ElectroPop plan.

Proposing “the greenest mix in the European market in 2025”, Renault intends having more than 65% of electric and electrified vehicles in the sales mix too.

Renault ElectriCity – a high-tech electric ecosystem in Northern France, combined with the group’s e-powertrain MegaFactory in Normandy, includes a partnership with Envision AESC to build a battery gigafactory in Douai from 2024.

A joint project with the French start-up Verkor plans to co-develop a high-performance, locally sourced and sustainable battery by 2022, with a capacity of 9GWh in 2024 aiming for 24GWh by 2030.

Renault wants a standardised cell footprint covering 100% of future battery electric vehicle (BEV) across all segments to reduce costs by 60% at pack level by 2030, and to develop a highly compact e-powertrain enabling a 30% costs reduction and a 45% drop in wasted energy, giving an extra EV range of up to 20km.

Renault Group’s partner will produce latest technology, cost-competitive, low-carbon and safe batteries for electric models, including the future Renault 5, the group also preparing for the arrival of solid-state battery technology.

“Ten new electric models will be conceived and up to one million electric vehicles will be manufactured by 2030, from cost-efficient urban vehicles to higher end sports cars,” Renault Group chief executive Luca de Meo says.

“We’ll train, invest, and partner with established and emerging best-in-class actors in their fields including St Micro-electronics, Whylot, LG Chem, Envision AESC, and Verkor. On top of efficiency, we are betting on iconic designs such as the beloved R5 to bring the Renault touch to electrification: making electric cars popular.”

Seven of the 10 new EVs will be under the Renault brand.

A muscled-up all-electric C-segment with the new MéganE is planned in 2022.

Renault proposes two icons with Renault 5 costing 33% less compared to Zoe, and another timeless revival with ‘4ever‘.

“Mobilize” will generate added value throughout the battery lifecycle with up to 400 euros annually with V2G for EV drivers and a residual value of up to 500 euros per battery, offering for the secondhand market a ‘health certificate’ (for state of health monitoring), battery warranty extension contracts, and trade-in offers made possible by the connected vehicle.

Through its subsidiary Indra and longstanding partnership with Veolia, the group benefits from know-how in EV battery collection and recycling. It has already recycled 75MWh cumulated capacity in batteries half of which in 2020 only.

The Renault Group is deploying retrofitting, battery re-using, dismantling and recycling facilities through its Re-Factory project in Flins with the objective to generate more than a billion euros of turnover from end-of-life and recycling activities by 2030.

The consortium recently announced with Solvay and Veolia enables the recovering of strategic battery materials such as cobalt, nickel and lithium with a very high efficiency and battery-grade quality, so they can be reused in the production of new car batteries.