Part of the development of this future small Renault city car should be done with a Chinese partner. But that doesn’t mean it will be produced there.
Renault boss Luca de Meo has promised a new generation of the Twingo in 2026. With a design inspired by the first version and prices announced at €20,000, this electric Renault Twingo is promising. Renault now has to keep its promises to produce it in just over 2 years, and this is where the association with a Chinese partner could contribute.
Sources close to the matter provided more information to Bloomberg on May 30. But what does this change for the small French electric city car?
Twingo, a Chinese city car? Not really
The announcement of a partnership with a Chinese company quickly raised fears that the Renault Twingo would be produced there and then marketed at low cost in France and Europe. This is not what is intended. The car will be manufactured in Europe in 2026, as Luca de Meo announced when he unveiled this future Twingo Legend.
This is part of the development of the vehicle which would be carried out jointly between the French teams at Ampere (new branch of Renault dedicated to electricity and software) and this Chinese partner. A Renault spokesperson confirmed to Reuters: “ The project is led by Ampere. The styling and advanced engineering project is being carried out in France, and production will take place in Europe, as planned. »
This is an increasingly common approach in the automotive industry. At Stellantis, for example, India has an increasingly important role in the design of recent models (Citroën ë-C3 or Peugeot e-3008). The Chinese partnership should allow Renault to move forward at a rapid pace on this new model, which is not yet the habit of large European groups, which still lack the agility necessary to do so. Ampère will therefore take advantage of this future model to learn from the Chinese on how to move forward more quickly on the development of electric cars.
This choice also has an impact on the cost of developing the project. Let’s hope that with the savings made, Renault will be able to support the project of this small electric city car alone. Although it would have been more profitable to be able to share these costs with another manufacturer. As the Chinese partner is not known, it is not excluded that we discover that engineering is ultimately not the only thing to be shared in the long term.
A plan B following the failure of discussions with Volkswagen?
According to information obtained by Bloomberg, this decision has nothing to do with the failure of a partnership with Volkswagen to jointly develop a very affordable electric city car. It must be said that the fact that this information was revealed a few days after the successive announcements from the boss of Renault, then that of Volkswagen, inevitably invites questions to be asked.
In reality, logic would rather dictate that Volkswagen dissociated itself from Renault on this car project because of Renault’s choice to subcontract part of the development in China. This could explain why the German brand has sought to insist on the fact that it will develop a high-quality model for its part.
“ Our vehicle will set standards of excellence in the entry-level segment in terms of technology, design, quality and experience » declared Volkswagen boss Oliver Blume on May 28. This statement could be quite classic in the mouth of a brand boss who oversells the quality of his future product, but there is something in the message which still looks like a little hidden message to the attention of Renault.
The Renault Twingo will certainly continue to be talked about. So, to follow all the developments throughout the year, subscribe to our free weekly Watt Else newsletter.