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Renault's ambitious EV strategy relies on historic nameplates

PARIS — Renault unveiled a more ambitious strategy for electric vehicles (EVs) on Wednesday, betting on new, affordable versions of its iconic small cars of the past to catch up with Volkswagen in the fast-growing sector. The French carmaker's Chief Executive Luca de Meo said it would launch 10 new EVs by 2025 and that all-electric vehicles would account for up to 90% of its models by 2030, dropping its reliance on hybrids to hit the target under a previous plan. Renault is betting that an electric version of its classic Renault 5 compact car, which was discontinued in the 1990s, will capture the imagination of today's drivers when it goes on sale in the first half of 2024. At a live-streamed presentation on Wednesday, the company also offered a fleeting glimpse of its new electric "4ever." model. Two sources close to the company said it was a revival of the Renault 4 hatchback which went out of production last century. "Today is an historic acceleration of Renault Group's EV strategy," de Meo said in a statement. De Meo said that new, purpose-built electric car platforms and a cluster of production sites in northern France would allow Renault to deliver EVs at a lower cost. The first of its new EVs will be the MeganE hatchback which is due to go on sale in the first half of 2022. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. By 2030, Renault and its alliance partners, Nissan and Mitsubishi, will be producing 1 million EVs globally a year, up from the 200,000 they made in 2020, the French carmaker said. Tesla, the world's most valuable carmaker, is already close to hitting that target, with sales of between 840,000 and 1 million EVs projected for this year. Shrinking share Renault's Zoe model, the biggest-selling battery electric car in its segment in Europe for years, is losing ground to models such as Volkswagen's ID.3 compact electric car. Figures from database EV-Volumes.com showed Volkswagen's share of the EV market in Europe soared to 25% last year from 14% in 2019, overtaking the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance, whose share shrank to 19% from 23% in 2019. In the first quarter of 2021, Renault's share fell further to 15%, tying with Tesla for third place behind Volkswagen on 21% and Stellantis on 17%, EV-Volumes.com data showed.

Dacia Duster to spawn inexpensive Nissan Terrano, will we get it?

When going to overseas auto shows, one can't help but spend an inordinate amount of time eyeballing forbidden automotive fruit. It's often of the seriously rare, criminally powerful and six- or seven-digit variety. But more often than one might think, the genuinely affordable overseas hero makes us swoon, too. So it is with the Dacia/Renault Duster, the cheap-as-chips, hard-wearing utility vehicle. We've often thought that its basic, rugged charms would play well in the US if saddled with a low enough price tag, but we've never seen much of a window for that to actually come true.
But now, Autocar India is reporting that Nissan will flex its alliance with Renault to spin off a Duster of its own, one that exhumes the Terrano nameplate, a moniker once used for overseas versions of the first- and second-generation Pathfinder. The new model will feature unique sheetmetal to give it a familial look, but the interior will be the same, and we expect the same goes for the powertrain, meaning there will be a range of gasoline and diesel four-cylinder engines with both manual and automatic gearboxes and front- or all-wheel drive.
So, does that mean we'll get a Nissan version of the Duster-based Terrano to call our own? Sadly, almost certainly not. Company spokesman Dan Bedore tells Autoblog flatly, "There are no plans to bring this model to the US." Bummer. Even if it isn't ultimately as capable as the larger, long-in-the-tooth Xterra (it's more on par with the now departed Canadian-market X-Trail), we think the Duster's archetypal SUV looks and low cost barrier would win it plenty of fans in our market. Our guess is that redesigning the model to meet US regulations (crash, emissions, lighting, etc.) would be prohibitively expensive, and the Dacia/Renault model is built in some pretty distant facilities - Brazil, India, Romania and Russia among them - making the business case harder still.

2015 Nissan Micra is your cheapest new car, Canada

Canadians looking for a brand-new car on the cheap, take note. This is the 2015 Nissan Micra, and it will arrive at dealerships this spring boasting a starting price of $9,998 Canadian dollars (circa $9,100 US), well under the $11,898 asked for a 2014 Versa Sedan.
Of course, that ultra-low asking price isn't for a fully loaded model. The Micra will arrive in the Great White North in three trims - S, SV and SR - with the buyer's choice of a five-speed manual or a four-speed automatic. A 109-horsepower, 1.6-liter four-cylinder is the sole engine choice. There will also be a number of accessory options that should allow some personalization for the small cars, with Nissan claiming that things like door handle finishers and mirror caps will be available in five different colors (plus chrome) for under $200.
"At Nissan, we understand the need in Canada for small, urban-friendly cars that are fun to drive and express their driver's personality. With Micra, we're delivering a proven global vehicle at a very attractive price - it's going to make a huge impact on the market," said Christian Meunier, the President of Nissan Canada.