Renaulution strategic plan aims to reinvent business for new automotive age

15 January 2021

15 January 2021 Groupe Renault has unveiled its new strategic plan, titled Renaulution, which aims to shift the company’s beliefs from volume to value. The strategy covers all of the Group’s brands, and will help stabilise the company in the face of mounting challenges, as well as repositioning towards a premium carmaker. The plan is structured into three parallel phases, focused on cash-generation recovery (Resurrection), renewed and enriched line-ups to help brand profitability (Renovation), and shifting the company’s business model to technology, energy and mobility (Revolution). The Resurrection plan will run up to 2023, with Renovation leading the company up to 2025, and Revolution to be implemented from 2025 onwards. With carmakers adapting to new technologies and propulsion systems, while looking to recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Groupe Renault’s plan is likely the first of many the industry will see this year. The aim for most carmakers will be to rebrand themselves as a technology business, while looking at new mobility solutions to ensure a wide range of profits, something Renualtution highlights. ′The plan is about moving the whole company from volumes to value,’ commented CEO Luca de Meo. ′More than a turnaround, it is a profound transformation of our business model. We have set steady, healthy foundations for our performance. We have streamlined our operations starting with engineering, adjusting our size when required, reallocating our resources in high-potential products and technologies. ′This boosted efficiency will fuel our future line-up: tech-infused, electrified and competitive. This will also feed our brands’ strength, each with their own clear, differentiated territories; responsible for their profitability and customer satisfaction. We’ll move from a car company working with tech to a tech company working with cars, making at least 20% of its revenues from services, data and energy trading by 2030.’ Brand plans Groupe Renault aims to drive its efficiency forwards through engineering and manufacturing to reduce costs worldwide, while building on its Alliance with Nissan and Mitsubishi to improve its reach in products, business and technology coverage. Renault futureUnder its plan, the group has set out strategies for each of its brands. Renault is to evolve into a technology, service and clean-energy brand by 2025, with a new electric-vehicle manufacturing hub to increase worldwide capacity. The carmaker will also initiate a joint venture to explore hydrogen fuel-cell technology and is to ensure half of its launches in Europe will be made up of battery-electric vehicles. Dacia will continue to offer affordable motoring, with the company expected to ′break the C-segment glass ceiling.’ The strategy will see Dacia adopt a super-efficient business model to improve design-to-cost, and reduce the number of platforms from four to one, while the current 18 body types will be brought down to 11, increasing average production rates. Seven models will be launched by 2025, two of which will be C-segment vehicles. Alpine F1 carAlpine will gain more focus from the Group, as it becomes a 100% electric brand. The company will develop a next-generation BEV sports car with Lotus, while the Renault Formula 1 team has been rebranded Alpine to increase visibility. Mobility options Groupe Renault is also launching a new business unit, Mobilize, which will develop new profit pools from data, mobility, and energy-related services to benefit vehicle users while projected to generate 20% of group revenues by 2030. Mobilize has three ′missions’, improving the time-usage of a vehicle, improving residual-value (RV) management, and helping in the ambition of a zero-carbon footprint. mobilize′The goal of Mobilize is to look beyond the traditional use of cars, offering new ways of transporting people and goods, either with or without a car,’ the company says. ′Expectations of customers, companies, cities and regional authorities are changing, with greater emphasis on sustainability and clean energy. Mobilize addresses this with its new mobility solutions.’ The mobility business will gain four purpose-designed vehicles, two for car sharing, one for ride-hailing and one for last-mile delivery. It will offer financing solutions such as subscription, leasing and pay-as-you-go models, a dedicated data service and software platform and new maintenance and refurbishment options.