(updated with details)
PARIS, Jan 28 (Reuters) – Renault announced on Friday that its plant in Dieppe (Seine-Maritime) will produce the future electric crossover of the Alpine brand, a model at the heart of the manufacturer’s recovery strategy.
“There was doubt about the future of this plant a few years ago and today, thanks to the work carried out by the Renault teams (..), we will be able to really ensure the future of this plant. “, declared on France Inter the president of Renault Jean-Dominique Senard.
Renault CEO Luca de Meo has made the sports brand, relaunched in 2017, one of the pillars of its policy of moving upmarket and strengthening the mid-size car segment, one of the most profitable in Europe.
Now embodying all of the diamond manufacturer’s motorsport, the brand will not be confined to the current A110 berlinetta. According to two sources close to Renault, it will expand from 2024 with the arrival of a small sedan, followed in 2025 by the compact crossover – a silhouette halfway between a sedan and an SUV – promised in Dieppe, then in 2026 of a new generation A110, also 100% electric, also allocated to the historic Alpine plant.
The brand revived by Luca de Meo’s two predecessors, Carlos Ghosn and Carlos Tavares, sold 1,900 cars in 2018, its first full year, then a record 4,800 in 2019, before falling back to 1,500 in 2020 and bouncing back from 74. % to 2,660 cars last year.
Renault and its allies, Nissan and Mitsubishi presented Thursday a vast joint plan which provides 23 billion euros of investment in the electrification of their vehicles over the next five years.
One of their five common electric platforms, the CMF-EV, will serve as the basis in particular for the new electric Mégane produced in Douai (North), the Nissan Ariya and the future Alpine crossover.
Faced with fierce competition from Tesla, Toyota or Volkswagen, this versatile architecture should constitute an important driver of synergies for the Franco-Japanese alliance by allowing the manufacture of more than 15 models and a volume of 1.5 million cars per year. worldwide. (Written by Marc Angrand and Gilles Guillaume, edited by Blandine Hénault)