Renault CEO blows hot and cold about energy transition

As ACEA President Luca de Meo emitted the thought a few days ago, banning ICE cars as of 2035, a requirement imposed by the EU, is getting complicated. Now he says there has been a ‘misunderstanding’  and that he stays “hyper-confident that electric drive will be the dominant technology in Europe and is the best solution if we want to reduce the environmental impact of transport”.

Luca de Meo currently wears many hats. He is the head of Renault Group, CEO of the Ampere division, and the current President of ACEA, the Association of European Automobile Manufacturers.

More flexibility

In an interview with the French newspaper Les Echos, Luca de Meo said that the car industry needed more flexibility to comply with the EU authorities’ proposed timetable.

He remembered that when the EU decided to ban ICE cars from the new car market, France and the Renault Group already hinted that it was too early and that 2040 would be a more realistic target.

“The question is the pace of transition, not the transition itself,” de Meo explained. “At the moment, a majority of EU countries turn around 7% of EVs. We want the whole ecosystem to move forward and be united. That’s why I ask for flexibility and agility.”

He added, “Electrification is only one solution for decarbonizing the whole sector. I think it is more relevant to look at the entire car park’s renovation and see what we can do with new types of fuels.”

These declarations must also be seen in the light of Horse, the combustion engine department inside Renault, which has been divided into Ampere (led by de Meo), dedicated to electric drive, and Horse, a co-enterprise with Chinese car manufacturing group Geely, to develop ICE and hybrid solutions further.

Horse intends to develop, produce, and sell engines, transmission systems, and batteries for cars with internal combustion engines and hybrids. “Those still represent almost all sales outside Europe and China,” de Meo pointed out.

Misunderstanding

A few days later, de Meo says his words as ACEA boss have been misunderstood. “Like all strategies, we must make temporary adjustments when goals aren’t reached. It doesn’t imply we are changing the final objective, electrification.”

Manufacturers face severe fines if they don’t comply with the EU regulations by 2025. De Meo has calculated that to reach the goals, European manufacturers must reduce the production of thermoelectric cars by 2.5 million or seriously increase the sales of electric cars.

“Nobody can accuse the European car industry that it hasn’t done its part of the work, but there has to be a more united and homogenous approach at the European level. At the same time, the EU and its member countries must invest further in infrastructure and encourage company car fleets to electrify faster.”

The Renault Group has been doing well lately, and de Meo points out that it results from years of hard work and restructuring. Unfortunately, Renault has seen the same reverse in shareholders’ enthusiasm at the Paris stock market as Stellantis, which had a bad Q2.

“We are considered a manufacturing club with some of our competitors,” commented Renault’s CFO Thierry Piéton. “It’s rather symbolic, and I’m convinced that the market will return on Renault because we’re going to continue our excellent performance,” de Meo concluded.