The French company will present the objectives of its electrical subsidiary, named Ampère, which it hopes to be able to value between 8 and 10 billion euros.
The big day for Ampère. The general director of Renault Luca de Méo must present, on the afternoon of Wednesday, November 15, to investors the objectives of his new subsidiary, entirely dedicated to electric vehicles. Ampère will normally be listed on the stock exchange in spring 2024 and open to shareholders other than Renault.
It looks like a sort of French Tesla, with the big difference that the start-up was created 20 years ago and Renault is a historic manufacturer, whose origins date back to the 19th century. Hence this revolution, this “renaulution”, as the general manager Luca de Méo called it internally and this therefore supposes the creation from this historic manufacturer of a “pure player” like Tesla. In plain French, it will therefore be a specialized company which will only produce electric models and which could ultimately stand on its own two feet.
A 100% French entity with 11,000 employees
The idea is in fact to list Ampère on the stock market in spring 2024. Renault will remain the majority shareholder, but its Japanese partners Nissan and Mitsubishi have already promised to invest 800 million euros and the American Qualcomm, specialist in semi -drivers and software, should also enter the capital.
Renault hopes to be able to value Ampère between 8 and 10 billion euros, but if investors do not follow, there will be no IPO, it is suggested within the group. The subsidiary will appear, at least initially, as a 100% French entity with 11,000 employees in France, of which a little more than a third are engineers. There will be 12 sites, including three factories based in Hauts-de-France, such as Douai, Maubeuge and Ruitz, as well as technical centers in Lardy, in the Paris region, or in Toulouse.
Seven models, including the R5
Ampère must ultimately produce seven models, including the R5 launched in 2024 (a mini SUV reminiscent of the R4), the Mégane E-Tech, an electric Scenic as well as a small A-segment model, like the Twingo, whose provisional name is “Legend”, already announced at a price of less than 20,000 euros. The firm’s idea is to offer the most affordable prices possible by reducing manufacturing costs by 40% and producing one million vehicles per year by 2031.
Very ambitious objectives while all the rest of Renault’s activity, gasoline or diesel cars, should be grouped into another entity, Horse, according to its code name, co-owned 50-50 by the Chinese Geely. Enough to already cause some concern among the unions. The CGT has planned a symbolic gathering for Tuesday in front of the Flins factory, in Yvelines.