Renault has just entered into a historic partnership with the Chinese giant Geely. You don’t know him? But yes, it is the parent company of Zeekr, the famous electric car with 1032 km of autonomy which is coming to Europe. We explain everything about this new company.
Will Renault soon market an electric car equipped with the gigantic 140 kWh battery of the Zeekr 001 belonging to the parent company Geely and announcing 1032 km of autonomy? Well no, at least not yet. The French group and the Chinese electric car giant (which owns Volvo, Lotus, Polestar, Smart, etc.) have just announced the creation of a joint venture, owned equally.
A company dedicated to hybrid cars
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The objective of this company specializing in engines and transmissions? ” Become the world leader in developing, producing and supplying the best cutting-edge hybrid and thermal powertrains as can be read in the press release.
In other words, Geely and Renault will combine their know-how, skills and production capacity, to design and produce the motors and batteries that will be used in future internal combustion, hybrid and plug-in hybrid cars of both groups. Too bad, the partnership does not seem to relate to the motors and batteries of 100% electric cars.
The difference is major, since if the technology is quite close between a plug-in hybrid car (PHEV) and an electric car, they are not exactly the same components. Although these tend to become more and more homogenized, so much so that some rechargeable hybrid car batteries now have a higher capacity than some electric cars.
Renault does not want a range of 1000 km
Whatever happens, the 140 kWh battery of the Zeekr 001 should not arrive so soon in an electric Renault. And this for many reasons. The first is that this famous battery is produced by the Chinese giant CATL. This new agreement therefore has nothing to do with this battery. But above all, Renault does not seem inclined to want to offer electric cars with a huge battery.
And this is understandable, because who says big battery, says high financial and ecological cost, as we have recently seen with the hypothetical future Toyota electric cars with 1500 km of autonomy.
But that’s not all, because Renault also wants to pursue the path of synthetic fuels (e-fuel) and hydrogen, thanks to the partnership with Aramco, which also wants to make a difference in this new Franco-Chinese joint venture. .
Geely, the rising Chinese giant
Geely is increasingly present in the global automotive landscape. A few weeks ago, some rumors even announced the arrival of Geely in the capital of Alpine (which belongs to Renault) to help electrify French sports cars. But a priori, this has not been done (or not yet), and Alpine would go it alone, supported by Renault, for its seven future electric cars.
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