(Updated with statements from Luca de Meo and context)
by Gilles Guillaume
Ampère, Renault RENA.PA’s new electric entity, published its first press release on Wednesday bearing its own logo to announce its official birth and present its entire management team.
The creation of the subsidiary, led by the general director of Renault, Luca de Meo, has been effective since November 1, Ampère announced, thus giving flesh to an unprecedented project which will be presented to investors on November 15 with a view to an introduction on the stock market in the first half of 2024.
Designed to play a leading role in the transformation of the Renault group, more than a century old, it intends to capitalize on the manufacturer’s 15 years of experience in electric vehicles, and uses its logo by adapting it.
“The Ampère logo is born from the diamond, the historic heart of Renault, its DNA, its human and industrial heritage,” we can read in the press release.
“Made up of different diamonds, it illustrates this new configuration of small and agile teams.”
The Ampère management team is made up of 18 people, mainly more or less recent senior executives from Renault – such as Josep-Maria Recasens, operational director, Vincent Piquet, financial director, Luciano Biondo, director of industrial operations and Gilles Vidal in design -, with the exception of Henry Bzeih, the new Director of Software & Systems, who came from Microsoft.
➦ Luciano Biondo should take over as industrial director of Ampère-sces
“PLAY LIKE THEY PLAY”
After being a pioneer in electric vehicles with Nissan the previous decade, Renault was eclipsed by very ambitious newcomers like Tesla and Chinese manufacturers.
“The Chinese and Tesla, perhaps they have taken a one-generation advantage, and I have to do two generations in one, that’s why I’m doing Ampère,” Luca de Meo explained on Wednesday during a conference on electric mobility organized by the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI).
“Because we have to play like they play, we have to have the courage to make the most cutting-edge technological choices,” he added.
Ampère must allow investors greater clarity of the electrical activity of the diamond group, separated from the historical thermal activities housed in the “Horse” JV.
Renault is making a different bet here from that of Stellantis, for example, which refuses to split its activities between a “newCo” and “oldCo” in the name of group unity.
Several analysts, however, question the entity’s ability to reach the valuation still mentioned at the beginning of September by Luca de Meo – up to ten billion euros.
Ampère can attract a population of investors different from those who invest in traditional automobile manufacturers, the manager said on Wednesday, highlighting the ESG criteria met by the new electrical entity.
(Report by Gilles Guillaume, edited by Blandine Hénault and Jean Terzian)