Renault plan to quarter factory production and overhaul brands

French automaker Renault is set to cut its factory production by a quarter, solidify methods for cost-cutting and overhaul its brand in a bid to reinvigorate the company, which has been struggling on a number of fronts for several years.

The plan will see the company take a new direction under its new CEO, Luca de Meo, with an emphasis on ROI and operating margins and away from the focus on revenue and market share present under their former boss.

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The CEO, who has been in charge of the company since July 2020, expressed ambitions to raise the company's cost-cutting by as much as 50% from €2 billion to €3 billion by 2025.

Renault's factory capacity is expected to shrink to 3.1 million cars annually by 2025, down from 4 million.

Renault has been stagnating for years owning to slow sales and an uneasy partnership with Nissan.

The French automaker started making losses in 2018 and was forced to take a €5 billion state-backed loan to stop it going under during the coronavirus pandemic.

The shift has been described as "a profound transformation of [its] business model" by de Meo.

Renault also hopes at least a third of its revenue following their 2025 transition will come from services and data.

Other cost-cutting plans for the company include halving the number of car platforms and engine variants, as well as overhauling a number of brands to prevent them overlapping.

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Renault is looking to transition several key models into fully-electric vehicles and is expecting to develop a battery-electric sports car with British automaker Lotus.

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