The long experience with electric cars makes Renault look quite relaxed into the future. CO2-stress with Brussels, the French car maker does not need to fear. 2022 should be able to choose the customer among eight Stromern.
You have to pay a certain respect to the strategists and engineers at Renault. On the subject of electromobility, they tried to take an early position and already set 2010 on a strategic plan in which the competition just shook his head. The plan envisaged investments of four billion euros. Four electric vehicles (Twizy, ZOE, Kangoo ZE and Fluence ZE) should be on the road in the next two years. Renault cooperated with 60 governments, cities, communities, utilities and organizations. By the end of the decade, according to the forecast at the time, every tenth Renault should roll off the production line with an electric motor.
No other European volume manufacturer showed a similarly strong commitment, although not everything went according to plan, such as the delivery of 100.000 Fluence ZE electric limousines to Better Place. The Israeli company under its charismatic CEO Shai Agassi went bankrupt with his exchange battery idea.
But even with this flop and the bold ten-percent vision (2018 was three percent), Renault is now the market leader in electric cars in Europe, selling 48.000 vehicles so far. There were even 216.000 units worldwide. With the ZOE Renault in Germany has the bestseller in the program. The small car went into the market at the beginning of 2013, eight months earlier than the BMW i3. It has since been sold to us through 20.000, with 1.100 registrations alone last month. For the first quarter, the importer in Cologne calls a doubling of its EV approvals compared to the same period of the previous year.
But as far as future electric vehicles are concerned, Paris is still quite covered in information. Although there is talk of a strategic plan with the always well sounding in the marketing name "Drive the Future", according to which the portfolio is to be extended worldwide to 2022 on eight purely electrical and twelve electrified models. But just a few days ago you pulled the cloth, the K-ZE. The City-Stromer celebrated its world premiere in China at the Auto Shanghai and should also be built there. A joint venture was established with Dongfeng. Over half a million units will be sold annually in the Middle Kingdom. Whether the K-ZE also finds its way to Europe, Renault did not comment. We assume that he will come within the next two years.
Because Renault would then have a full-fledged electric vehicle and at the same time trendy city SUV below the ZOE on offer. This A0 segment would have already been able to occupy the Twingo as a counterpart to the Smart Forfour Electric Drive. However, such a plan had been rejected with the Daimler subsidiary from the beginning. The end of the cooperation is in sight. Smart will be completely electric and builds the next generation of its small Stromer 2022 together with Geely in China.
Based on a model cycle of seven years, 2020 would be the next generation of the ZOE. Its length is likely to remain at around 4,10 meters. In terms of range (up to 400 kilometers), the ZOE is already well equipped. A larger battery would no longer bring benefits in everyday life and drive up the price and weight only unnecessarily. The following year, the successor of the Kangoo ZE could roll to the dealer. If the cooperation with Mercedes persists, the Stuttgarters would at the same time have an electric Citan in their commercial portfolio. The segment is becoming more and more important for craft businesses, which in the future may need to be free of emissions in inner cities.
But not only all-electric Renault is committed on the road, even in the hybridization puts the switch to. The new Clio gets 2020 an 48-Volt-Mildhybridsystem, in the next Captur as well as in the Mégane plugged in each case a plug-in hybrid. Gradually, the entire model range is electrified. You do not have to hurry because of Brussels 2020. "We do not have our backs to the wall when it comes to C02 emissions," says Gilles Normand, head of the Renault electrical division.