Ampere plans seven EVs by 2031, one under €20.000 (update)

As a prequel to its Capital Market Day around Ampere, organized on Wednesday, November 15th, in the afternoon by the Renault Group, Renault’s electric arm is already uncovering its plans for the years to come. These include seven EVs on the market by 2031, one of them a small EV, called the Twingo ‘Legend’, to be sold at a price under €20 000.

“Ampere is an ambitious, holistic, and structural response of the European industry to the challenges coming from East and West,” says Renault’s big boss Luca de Meo, also CEO of Ampere. “In the true spirit of Renault, Ampere is engineered to make electric and connected cars affordable for all, addressing the imperatives of energy transition and seizing the growth opportunities on the market.”

He continues: “Ampere is first about striving for technological excellence and customer experience: two EV-native platforms, a powerful line-up of seven cars, a new generation of centralized electronic architecture, an advanced Android-based software suite, and the most compact and efficient supply and manufacturing EV ecosystem, all created in Europe.”

To conclude: “Ampere combines the best of two worlds: the experience and firepower of a leading carmaker and the agility and innovation of a newcomer. Ampere is ESG in 3D, designed from scratch to reach the highest standards in decarbonization, circular economy, and fair transition.

Democratizing EVs

According to Ampere, it is well positioned to address the B and C segments in the market, expected to represent 75% of the European EV market by 2030. To capture this opportunity, Ampere aims to democratize EVs in Europe by reaching EV/ICE price parity before the competition in the B and C segments.

According to Ampere, it already has a significant competitive advantage with its two EV-native platforms that are cost-effective by design and fit for purpose: they are now called ‘AmpR Small platform’ for the B segment (previously called CMF-B EV) and ‘AmpR Medium platform’ for the C segment (previously CMF-EV).

Beyond these platforms, Ampere has a clear roadmap to reduce its cost. By 2027/2028, Ampere targets to reduce variable costs between the 1^st and the 2^nd generation of C-segment electric vehicles by 40%, following a continuous trajectory along three main levers: the powertrain, the platform, and the production cost.

Ampere targets a 50% reduction in battery cost and 25% for the e-powertrain. Concerning the platform, 25% is the target for reducing the platform cost and 15% for the upper body cost. The production cost, finally, has to be reduced by 50%.

“The horizontal approach reduces development time by 50% and puts us in terms of production cost at the level of our Chinese competitors and half the cost of the Western competition,” underlines Luca de Meo.

Initially five, later seven

To achieve this objective, Ampere will have a portfolio of A, B, and C segment cars initially consisting of five vehicles: the already-sold Megane E-Tech, the soon-to-be-launched Scenic E-Tech, the already announced Renault 5, coming in the first quarter of 2024 at a price around €25 000, and the Renault 4, a “reinterpretation of the universal car for the electric era”, probably also with a price tag starting around €25 000.

The new kid on the block is the Twingo ‘Legend’, referring undoubtedly to the very successful launch of the first Twingo in 1992, a very significant small EV if it can live up to its promises. According to Renault, this ‘Legend’ will be “a fit-for-purpose urban vehicle with no compromise: best-in-class efficiency with only 10 kWh/100 km, 75% lower CO₂ emissions than the average European ICE car sold in 2023 over its lifecycle, zero tailpipe CO₂ emissions, and lower raw materials consumption thanks to its compact size.”

Made in Europe, most probably in Renault’s factory in Nove Mesto in Slovenia, where the current electric Twingo is already produced. The car will be offered at an entry price below €20 000 (before subsidies). “This will represent less than €100 per month for our clients,” boasts the manufacturer.

The first pictures released show many reminiscences to the first iconic Twingo, most noticeable the ‘eyelash’ front lights and the ‘smiling face’.  The profile picture suggests that it will be a five-door with the rear doors hinged at the back, but that’s not official. We haven’t received many details yet.

This five-model line-up will be extended with two additional cars for the second-generation EVs, representing a total of seven vehicles by 2031. From a target of ± 300 000 vehicle sales in 2025, Ampere expects to sell approximately 1 million vehicles annually in 2031, reaching a market share of around 10%.

Financial targets

Renault set out financial targets for the Ampere unit, including an expected breakeven in 2025 and an operating margin of at least 10% from 2030, ahead of an investor day meant to drum up support for the initial public offering (IPO) slated for spring 2024.

Thierry Piéton, CFO of Renault Group, said Renault would not sell off Ampere at a discount and would evaluate other options if market conditions did not make it possible to obtain the valuation for Ampere Renault is expecting. “We are not going to give it away,” he said.

Asked if Renault could decide to distribute Ampere shares to existing Renault shareholders instead of proceeding with an IPO, Piéton said: “Renault is always open to other options for Ampere, but the IPO is the preferred option.”

“We have generated €2,5 billion of cash this year and €2,1 billion last year. If, for external reasons, the IPO is postponed, we have enough cash to finance our plans ourselves,” he added.

Piéton said Renault aimed to sell EVs at the same price as its combustion engine cars earlier than rivals, with smaller EV models reaching price parity (with their ICE counterparts) in the next two years and bigger ones by 2027-28.

“We want to democratize EVs in Europe. We will reduce our costs to lower our prices while improving our margins simultaneously. Ampere targets a 30% average annual growth of revenues between 2023 and 2031. From €10 billion in 2025 with four vehicles, Ampere will target more than €25 billion of revenue in 2031 with seven competitive vehicles.”

“Beyond its own line-up, Ampere is also designed to be a technological, manufacturing, and business platform for other brands, representing further upsides for Ampere,” he concluded.