PARIS — Renault’s future full-electric small vehicles will use a modified model of the Renault-Nissan Alliance’s CMF-B platform, together with the reborn Renault 5 and a brand new mannequin to come back from high-performance brand Alpine, CEO Luca de Meo mentioned. 

The information concerning the structure – which Renault calls CMF-B EV — solutions one query concerning the group’s future merchandise.

Renault introduced a number of years in the past that compact and midsize EVs can be constructed on a platform referred to as CMF-EV, which was developed with alliance accomplice Nissan. The primary two compact fashions on that platform, the Nissan Ariya and a manufacturing model of the Renault Megane eVision idea, will seem earlier than 2022.

Nevertheless it was unclear what would underpin the successor to the present Zoe small EV, which has been in Renault’s lineup since late 2012, and different small electrical vehicles.

De Meo mentioned final week in asserting the “Renaulution” turnaround plan that each one small vehicles launched by 2025 can be “one hundred pc electrical” – presumably on the CMF-B EV structure.
 
“We are going to derive an electrical model (for small vehicles) from the CMF platform so as to have a whole supply,” Renault engineering chief Giles le Borgne mentioned in the course of the presentation of the plan.

Le Borgne mentioned it was an alliance platform. He didn’t give some other particulars, though a picture of the platform reveals decreased entrance and rear overhangs and a flat battery ground to optimize inside house.

The CMF-B EV platform is essential to the Renault model as a result of its two best-selling fashions – the Clio and Captur – are within the small-car phase, additionally referred to as the B-segment. Gross sales of car’s within the phase account for two-thirds Renault’s gross sales by quantity.

De Meo described Renault’s future mannequin plan as “reconquering the C phase whereas defending B phase management.” 

To defend that management, Renault will want small electrical fashions, as a result of tightening European emission laws add compliance prices on inside combustion engines that erode already-slim revenue margins on small vehicles.

The Clio and Captur have been hybridized with Renault’s E-Tech system, however Renault had been quiet a few successor to the Zoe, which was Europe’s best-selling EV in 2020 and has been receiving common motor and battery updates, in addition to a facelift in 2019 that centered largely on the inside. 

Renault’s foremost European opponents within the small automotive segments, VW Group and Stellantis, have taken diverging methods on electrification. VW Group’s future small EVs, for instance the VW ID2, can be on the group’s MEB electric-only structure, whereas Stellantis has simply launched small electrical vehicles and SUVs from Peugeot and Opel/Vauxhall on the CMP platform, which was designed for each inside combustion and battery electrical drivetrains.

De Meo’s product plan reveals two Renault model small EVs, one due in 2023, the retro-styled Renault 5, and one other in 2025, probably a crossover or SUV that might impressed by the outdated Renault 4. No particulars got a few small Alpine EV.

The Renault 5 can be constructed on the group’s manufacturing unit in Douai, northern France, Chairman Jean-Dominique mentioned this week on the French information channel BFM-TV.

By 2025, about 3 million alliance autos can be constructed yearly on the CMF-B and CMF-B EV platforms. 

CMF-B, which stands for Frequent Modular Household, is itself a comparatively new platform. The primary fashions from Renault appeared in 2019, together with the Clio V small automotive and second-generation Captur small SUV. Nissan’s first CMF-B mannequin is the second-generation Nissan Juke small SUV. They have been adopted final yr by the brand new technology Dacia Sandero and Logan.

One other mannequin, if it seems, that’s doubtless to make use of the CMF structure is the following technology Nissan Micra. Beneath the alliance’s new alignment, introduced final spring, Renault will take the lead in growing small vehicles for Europe. The Micra is constructed by Renault in Flins, France, however that manufacturing unit is scheduled to be transformed to recycling and different environmentally pleasant operations. 

Nissan’s personal turnaround plan, Nissan Subsequent, doesn’t point out a future Micra or certainly any small vehicles for Europe.