Renault, Nissan Motor and Mitsubishi Motors said on Thursday they plan to deepen cooperation in electric vehicle (EV) production as their two decade-old alliance positions itself to compete with changing global car markets.
They will increase the number of common platforms for EVs to five from four, and by 2030 plan to have a combined EV line-up of 35 vehicles, they said in a statement.
The carmakers also said that by 2026 four-fifths of all models made by their alliance will share common platforms, compared with 60% now.
The “Alliance to 2030” plan aims to deploy the fifth common platform for compact EVs designed by Renault.
Nissan has already decided to use this platform, called CMFB-EV, and other standardised components to electrify its Micra compact car, while Renault is expected to come up with a similar EV car based on the same platform.
“The three member companies have defined a common roadmap towards 2030, sharing investments in future electrification and connectivity projects,” Renault Group chair Jean-Dominique Senard said.
Common electronic architecture
He said the alliance, under Renault’s leadership, is developing a common centralised electrical and electronic architecture.
“These are massive investments that none of the three companies could make alone,” Senard added.
The carmakers said they were working with common partners to achieve scale and affordability for batteries, planning to reduce costs by 50% in 2026 and 65% by 2028.
As established automakers face pressure from new competitors and an expected shift in demand toward EVs, the three carmakers said they would invest more than 20 billion euros ($23 billion) over the next five years on EV development.
That is in addition to 10 billion euros the group has already spent on electrification.
- Reuters, with additional editing by George Russell
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