Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi have unveiled a €23 billion plan for investment into electric vehicles which the companies say will keep them competitive in the transition to green driving.
Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance. Credit: Nissan
Credit: Nissan
The 23-year-old alliance said it would up the number of common EV platforms from four to five and intend to have a combined lineup of 35 electric vehicles by the end of the decade.
The companies added that by 2026, four out of five of their models would share common platforms, and increase from the 60% at present.
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The new strategy looks to strengthen the ties between the companies and soothe the tensions that still rock the alliance since the 2018 arrest of former Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn in Japan following a financial scandal.
The Alliance chair Jean-Dominique Senard said that while there had been a "crisis unprecedented because of a lack of trust" between the companies, the newly unveiled strategy was proof that they were now working in close harmony.
Nonetheless, it faces stiff competition from larger automakers such as Toyota, which pledged €62.5 billion for electrification in December, as well as Tesla, which forecast growth of 50% in 2022.
Germany's Volkswagen is also pumping double the amount into new investments as the alliance in its own bid to take on Tesla.
To power the new cars, the partners said they intend to secure 220 GWh hours of battery production capacity by 2030. This would provide greater scale and enable them to slash battery costs in half by 2026 and reduce them by 65% by 2028.
No details on how the capacity would be secured were given.
The money promised on Thursday comes from funding announced last year.
Last June, Renault released its five-year €10 billion electric vehicle strategy, with a plan to release 10 models and have EVs account for 90% of all models by 2030.
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In November, Nissan announced an investment of 2 trillion yen (€15.5 billion) over five years in order to speed up its own transition, which includes both EVs and hybrid gasoline-electric cars.
The Japanese automaker also has plans to release 23 electrified vehicles by the end of the decade, 15 of which would be pure EVs. It is also looking to cut the cost of lithium-ion batteries by 65% over the next eight years, and introduce all-solid-state batteries - a potential gamechanger - by 2029.
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