(updated with details)
PARIS, May 12 (Reuters) – Renault RENA.PA announced on Thursday that the entities dedicated to electricity and combustion that it intends to create to gain visibility would each employ 10,000 people by 2023.
After the presentation by the diamond group in February of a project to separate its activities devoted to electric vehicles, which could be listed on the stock market, and those specializing in gasoline, diesel and hybrid engines, the financial markets speculated on a carmaker split.
The project of the two entities, which will be detailed during an investor day in the fall, in fact revolves around a smaller scope since Renault employs 157,000 people worldwide.
The group intends to present itself more as a “pure player” of electric, against competitors like Tesla
TSLA.O whose offensive overshadowed the pioneering position of the French group on this technology during the previous decade.
“This autonomous entity would have a business model adapted to the specificities of electricity and would aim to forge partnerships in new technologies or services,” the group said in a press release. In particular, it would bring together part of the technocentre, two assembly plants in northern France and the Cléon engine site.
The thermal and hybrid engine and transmission activities – excluding chassis – would group together the mechanical engineering sites in Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Romania and Latin America, as well as dedicated engineering and R&D. The group’s other sites are not affected by the current study.
(Gilles Guillaume, edited by Sophie Louet)