Renault launches e-mobility industry cluster in France
Renault Group is creating an independent umbrella company called Renault ElectriCity for electric car production at its Douai, Maubeuge and Ruitz plants in northern France. Renault ElectriCity will be measured against a target of 400,000 vehicles per year from 2025.
The new umbrella company is to become “the largest and most competitive production centre for electric vehicles in Europe”, according to the French carmaker. The plan is to create 700 permanent new jobs by 2025, including 350 in Maubeuge and 350 in Douai and Ruitz. Currently, a total of almost 5,000 people are employed in Douai, Maubeuge and Ruitz.
Renault’s plans for the three plants are as follows: The Douai plant will produce its first electric car, the all-electric Mégane based on the CMF EV platform of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance, starting this year. Initial road tests of the electric car have recently begun. On the same platform, Douai will be allocated a new model in the C-segment. In addition, a new electric platform will be installed at the Douai plant for the industrialisation of B-segment vehicles.
The Maubeuge plant will produce, among other things, the new electric Kangoo from 2022. The Ruitz transmission plant will also produce electric components in the future.
With the creation of the umbrella company, Renault aims to implement a coherent industrial project for all three plants in the Hauts-de-France region and to improve operationally by “relying on a management model, a social model and the modernisation of production sites”. The group also states that it intends to develop an infrastructure for key components for electric vehicles with the help of the new Northern Industrial Cluster. Renault talks about “demonstrating the advantages of locating both a battery factory project and other partners producing components for electric vehicles nearby”.
Director of Renault ElectriCity will be Luciano Biondo. “I am very proud to have contributed to the creation of Renault ElectriCity, a symbol of Renault’s know-how and technological innovation, and to participate to the enhancement of the economic and social attractiveness of Hauts-de-France in Europe,” Luciano says. In addition to the Renault Group, the trade unions were also involved in the decision on the future of the three sites. The agreement between the various parties now results in Renault ElectriCity. Its creation is embedded in Renault’s Renaulution strategic plan presented in January.
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