The merger may wait, but the future of the Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi groups is “inextricably linked”. “We need to be patient”, suggests Jean-Dominique Senard, president of the Franco-Japanese Alliance in the joint press conference which, even in institutional etiquette, wants to bring out the newfound unity and absolute convergence of intent after the difficulties of recent years. To the 10 billion already invested in electrification, another 23 will be added in the five-year period that has just opened. Which are less than half of those announced by the Volkswagen group: “We have ten years of experience and we are not starting from scratch”, says Clotilde Delbos, Renault’s number two.
The Alliance says it knows how (or not) the money is spent, part of which will go to the development of solid-state batteries, responsibility of Nissan. The goal is to start mass production in 2028 to support the growing diffusion, albeit in part still patchy, of zero-emission vehicles on the road thanks. Nissan imagines cost parity with vehicles powered by conventional engines with a reduction of $ 65 per kWh (currently over 100).
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The sharing of technologies is crucial for the financial sustainability of the Alliance’s brands, which will increase the use of common platforms. Today, 60% of the approximately one hundred models have the same architectures, while in 2026, 80% of the ninety vehicles in the range will be built on the same platforms. The one for segment B electric cars will be used for “the democratization of zero-emission mobility”, as summarized by Luca De Meo, CEO of Renault since 2020. The Losanga will manufacture the future R5, Nissan has chosen it for the successor of the Micra (which in Europe will only be zero emissions and which will be produced in France) and will also be used by Mitsubishi, which will therefore remain in the Old Continent. “It is the best electric platform in the world”, assures De Meo.
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There will be 5 global and shared electric architectures, one more than the current 4, with an offer that will reach 35 models, including commercial vehicles, by 2030: 90% will be born on the same platforms. On the CMF-EV, that of the Nissan Ariya and the Renault Megane e, about fifteen will be built with the involvement of Mitsubishi, Alpine and Infiniti for a total of 1.5 million units a year. The new CMF-BEV, which will arrive in 2024, will make use of the most unbalanced brands on Europe and therefore Dacia, in addition to the French Renault and Alpine and the Japanese Nissan for a total of 250,000 units a year. The architecture promises up to 400 kilometers of autonomy with a reduction in consumption of over 10% compared to the current Zoe.
The Alliance aims at carbon neutrality with 2050 with Europe at the forefront of electrification because, Makoto Uchida, CEO of Nissan recalled, the “turning point” occurs at different speeds depending on the country and the manufacturer wants to accompany (and do not force) his customers into conversion. Costs will also drop on the battery front, at least for manufacturers: by 50% by 2026 and by 65% two years later. It is unclear whether motorists will also benefit from these economies of scale, given that accumulators have a significant impact on the price of the car.
Autonomous driving and related services are another of the great games in which the Alliance intends to be the protagonist: the one and a half million vehicles (24 models) equipped today with the most advanced ADAS are destined to become 10 million (45) in 2026. Within five years, the number of vehicles connected to the group’s cloud will increase from 3 to 25 million, also thanks to the new Google environment.
