Renault pushes for electrification delay

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Rob
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Renault Group’s director of R&D, Gilles Le Borgne, used the Munich motor show to calmly outline why the EU’s proposal to “cut vehicular CO2 emissions from current levels by 100% by 2035” (in simple terms, to ban all forms of hybrids across the EU’s 27 nations) would be resisted by the French firm. He said that 2040 would be a fairer date, environmentally, societally and economically.

“I must be clear that we aren’t resistant to the transition. But there are three clear reasons why we believe it makes sense to extend the transition. Firstly, we want absolute confidence that the infrastructure expands at the rate at which BEVs are mandated. That’s far from certain, and to go faster makes no sense.

“Then, while we have absolute confidence that we have the technology – hybrid, plug-in hybrid and BEV are all on sale today – we don’t know if we have the customers who want it or, more significantly, can afford it.

“Finally and critically, we need time to adapt. Switching our factories over to these new technologies isn’t simple and adapting our workforce to it will take time. Such a timeline would be hard for us – and harder still when you work the supply chain into the mix.

“People need to move, and a popular brand like Renault has to be able to offer them a chance to do so in a practical way and at an affordable price.”

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