“Next year, we will see an acceleration of the EV market.” So says Luca de Meo, CEO of French OEM Renault, as he foresees the impact of two 2024 product launches making a material difference only after the turn of the year.
The C-segment Scenic E-Tech e-SUV made its way to dealers in France in April-May and to those in other countries in June, meaning it is “a bit early” to draw conclusions yet on demand for the vehicle, according to de Meo. “I think we'll have to wait for end of the year,” he predicts.
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And the B-segment Renault 5 E-Tech will start deliveries in October, having “very recently opened” the order book in Renault’s home French market. On its production, “ramp-up is going okay,” de Meo says. “A couple of weeks ago we started to really get into really good production rhythm.
“We will be able to see the potential of Renault 5, I would say, maybe mid-2025,” de Meo forecasts. While his firm has seen “a lot of interest [in] the cars for sure”, it is thus too early to make any definitive call on demand.
But de Meo is optimistic, for reasons both structural and empirical. On the former, it is because Renault believes that the new 5 offers a “unique proposition” at its price level. “We do not have a lot of competition, to be honest, at that level,” the Renault chief says.
He also shares a personal anecdote on the appeal he hopes the product will have. “I drive a yellow Renault 5 in Paris, one of the first ones.
“I can tell you that people stop me at every red light, and they make selfies with me. So, I think that car is really a magnet for people. Now we have to see if this converts into order, but it seems good,” he reports.
HEVs but not PHEVs
Renault has seen its European sales increase by 8.2pc in the first half of 2024, outpacing an overall market that it sees growing by inly 5.5pc. But it is HEVs, not yet BEVs, that have driven its outperformance, with Renault's hybrid passenger cars sales posting a 45pc increase year-on-year.
While HEVs are gong great guns, de Meo is notably more bearish about the prospects of PHEVs, seeing the "the mix in Europe going down", even though his personal view is that "it is a good technology".
"It is a technology more adapted to premium [and] high-end cars because it is very expensive. You have basically two powertrains in the same thing," de Meo warns.
"I do not think that plug-in hybrid will become a dominant technology in Europe. I think we have to bet on mild hybridisation and especially [B]EVs because the rules of the game are even more clear," he continues, warning that PHEV demand in places like Germany have proven particularly vulnerable to regulatory changes, suggesting that there are underlying customer demand issues for the technology.
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