In a recent interview, Eric Feunteun, Vice President of the Electric Vehicle Project at Renault Group, stated that the current development of electric vehicles should focus on first-tier cities, and that the limits of lithium-ion battery electric vehicles may be reached in 2023.
As one of the latest joint ventures to enter China, Renault's automotive business in China has only been operating for five years. In terms of total sales, Renault's products are still relatively niche in the Chinese market. In the first half of 2018, SAIC Volkswagen, the joint venture automaker with the highest sales in the Chinese market, sold 1.02 million units, while Renault sold 37,900 units in the same period.
Renault announced mid-year that it will launch nine new models in China in 2022, three of which will be pure electric vehicles.
In a recent interview, Eric Feunteun, Vice President of the Electric Vehicle Project at Renault Group, stated that the current development of electric vehicles should focus on first-tier cities, and that the limits of lithium-ion battery electric vehicles may be reached in 2023.
When asked about the current difficulties in charging electric vehicles, Eric Feunteun said that the situation is quite different in China and Europe. He cited an example: 50% of people who buy electric vehicles in Paris live in the suburbs and have their own independent yards; moreover, the electric vehicle is their second car, not their first.
This means that these customers can install charging stations at home, and their main purpose for driving electric vehicles is urban commuting. Eric Feunteun said that these customers drive to work, often from one city to another, a distance of about 50 kilometers, and the cost of using electric vehicles is lower than that of gasoline vehicles.
Although its primary markets are very different from China, Renault is confident in its electric vehicles. In fact, Renault's electric vehicles are quite popular in the European market: excluding China, Renault's compact electric car, the ZOE, ranked 5th in global electric vehicle sales in the first half of this year, selling over 17,000 units. This is a good result, considering that Tesla, with its equally strong product lineup, is ahead of it.
Meanwhile, the top-ranked product is the Nissan Leaf, a recently redesigned model and also a product of the Renault-Nissan Alliance. While the Nissan Leaf has just been redesigned, the Renault ZOE and the previous generation Leaf are essentially the same car with similar sales figures before the Leaf's redesign. The Renault ZOE, also a redesigned Nissan Leaf, is set to be redesigned in 2019, and its sales are highly likely to surge.
However, Renault has been slow to introduce electric vehicles to China. Renault signed a joint venture agreement with Dongfeng in 2013, and domestically produced vehicles began production in 2016, while electric vehicle products are still several years away from being introduced. In contrast, Nissan, a partner in the Renault-Nissan Alliance, began domestic production of the previous generation Leaf as early as 2014.
Renault's decision to begin producing electric vehicles is clearly related to China's electric vehicle incentive policies, but it may be a bit late. On the one hand, China's new energy vehicle subsidies will be phased out in 2020, meaning Renault's electric vehicles may not be eligible for subsidies. On the other hand, large-scale deliveries by domestic Chinese car manufacturers are also expected in 2019 and 2020, meaning the already competitive Renault ZOE will face competition from cheaper local products.
Eric Feunteun also discussed the technological development of electric vehicles. He stated that current lithium-ion battery technology may reach its limits by 2023 or 2024, and Renault is currently focusing on forward-looking research into solid-state batteries, believing this direction may be the future trend. Regarding other options such as fuel cells, Renault and Nissan are aligned and do not consider these technologies as their top research priorities.
