The Renault Group has hived off its electric vehicle and software activities into a dedicated new business, called Ampere, as part of the third stage of its 'Renaulution' transformation.
The announcement comes as part of a wide-reaching update to boss Luca de Meo's reinvention plans, which see the company shift focus to becoming what it calls "a next-gen automotive company".
Hiving off Ampere as its own entity, the Renault Group says it is creating "the first EV and software pure player born from an OEM disruption". The company plans to float Ampere on the Paris stock exchange from the second half of 2023, keeping a 'strong' majority of shares to itself.
Ampere is described as a manufacturer in its own right, and will sit alongside Renault, Alpine, Dacia and mobility brand Mobilize in the newly expanded Renault Group portfolio.
It will employ around 10,000 staff – some 3500 of whom engineers, and half of them software specialists – and will "bring the best of both worlds: know-how and assets from Renault Group with the focus and agility of an EV pure player". Its conception and positioning is not dissimilar to that of Polestar, which was carved out as a dedicated brand from Volvo in 2017, and listed on the Nasdaq earlier this year.
By 2030, Ampere will have a line-up of six pure-electric passenger cars on sale, covering a claimed 80% of the EV mainstream profit pool. Four of these have already been revealed or closely previewed: the Renault 5 Electric, Renault 4 Electric, Renault Mégane E-Tech Electric and Renault Scenic Electric. Renault says "a large portion of the investments of the first four vehicles" has already been spent.
Two more are still to come, though the company has yet to clarify which segments these will occupy. Ultimately, Ampere aims to produce around one million EVs for the Renault brand in 2031.
Renault highlights three 'tech backbones' that make Ampere unique in the market. First is the company's new ElectriCity production hub in northern France, which will produce a car in less than 10 hours from 2025 and has 80% of its suppliers within 200 miles.
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