Renault has announced its six-year strategy plan dubbed ‘Drive The Change’ which aims to grow the company by selling more than three million vehicles per year, generate at least two billion euros in “free cash flow” and achieve profit margins of at least five per cent by 2013.
Carlos Ghosn, chairman and chief executive of Renault, said that the company had recently weathered the severe recession because of Renault’s success in light commercial vehicles and the Dacia family of budget vehicles.
Quality standards are also claimed to have improved dramatically, with warranty costs falling 57 per cent between 2006 and 2010. Renault says there are “seven levers” for meeting the 2016 objectives, including a serious move into electric vehicle production, launching more models, sharing future platforms with both Nissan and Daimler and introducing new more fuel-efficient drivetrains.
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The latter include the new 1.6-litre Energy dCi 130 twin-turbo diesel engine, which is claimed to reduce fuel use by 20 per cent, compared to the previous-generation diesel units and the upcoming Energy TCe petrol engines, which are said to be 30 per cent more efficient. Renault says that its European fleet average Co2 output will fall from137g/km today to 120g/km in 2013 and less than 100g/km by the time all the company’s EV models are on sale in 2016.
Renault will have four electric vehicles (the Fluence ZE, Kangoo ZE, Twizy and Zoe) on sale by 2012 and says ‘further models’ will arrive by 2016. Renault and its alliance partner Nissan expect to have sold 1.5m EVs by 2016. From 2015 the two makers will have the capacity to build 500,000 EVs each year.
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