by Gilles Guillaume and Nick Carey
PARIS/LONDON (Reuters) – Mobilize, Renault’s new mobility and data services brand, is aiming for a double-digit margin by 2027, an illustration of the role it is called upon to play in the group’s financial recovery to the diamond.
Symbol of the manufacturer’s shift towards new activities linked to the evolution of vehicle uses and their electrification, Mobilize presented its own medium-term strategic plan on Tuesday.
“Mobilise’s mission is to be the pivot to lead Renault Group towards new mobility and a way to engage in more profitable activities, and therefore to create value,” said Renault CEO Luca de Meo. during a digital press conference.
Renault returned to its first profit in three years last year and is aiming for a group-wide operating margin of around 3% this year.
With a range of mobility, rental, charging, financing, insurance, payment, maintenance and reconditioning services, Mobilize must help the manufacturer to overcome industrial cycles, which are particularly volatile today.
“Mobilize sells services and not vehicles, which generates recurring revenue and reduces operating costs for our customers,” added Clotilde Delbos, general manager of the brand, quoted in a press release. “The vehicle becomes a service platform, making it possible to multiply by three the turnover generated during its life cycle.”
Former financial director of Renault, Clotilde Delbos now devotes herself full-time to the latest of the manufacturer’s brands. This must reach operational equilibrium by 2025 and account for 20% of the Renault group’s turnover in 2030.
This vocation as a service provider justifies the choice to manufacture the whole of Mobilize’s dedicated range abroad, continued Clotilde Delbos. For cost reasons, the Limo electric sedan for taxi and VTC operators is developed and assembled in China. The other models – Duo, Bento and Hippo – designed for car-sharing and last-mile delivery – will be available between 2023 and 2026.
Mobilize, whose roadmap is different from Renault’s plan to create an entity dedicated to the manufacture and sale of electric vehicles based in France, also announced a strengthening of its links with the group’s banking activity in diamond, RCI Bank and Services, renamed for the occasion Mobilize Financial Services.
(Gilles Guillaume, edited by Bertrand Boucey and Sophie Louet)