A new Scénic, but not a new Twingo. Although Renault will present the new generation of its famous minivan at the beginning of September, which will go to the SUV format and be 100% electric, the urban car will not have the right to a successor.
Small disappearing city cars
For Luca de Meo, CEO of the French group and guest at Good Morning Business this Monday, August 28, the Twingo’s closure is mainly explained by an unfavorable context in Europe for this type of model:
“There is not much business with these small cars. All the European regulations only penalize manufacturers that have a tradition in small cars.”
He pursues:
“In Europe we also have to go back to small cars: a small electric car has less impact than a large five-meter sedan, that’s obvious. But the regulations do not allow doing business and, for me, my priority is business.”
An economical model of a micro-urban car that has indeed been facing a difficult context for several years, particularly in the face of increasingly stringent anti-pollution regulations. A pity for small and low-polluting cars in an age of environmental awareness.
“Regain competitiveness in Europe”
While in France the suppression of the CVAE (contribution to the added value of companies) will not finally take place until 2027, Luca de Meo assured that this does not change his plans to produce his electric models in French factories. For the leader, it is rather at the European level where the competitiveness of industrialists is at stake:
“The question arises around the whole system, that is, social charges, the price of energy – we pay twice what the Chinese pay for energy – all the regulations, all the complexity of the system. Europe the question of how to recover competitiveness, how to recover productivity must be raised, that is the debate that must be carried out”.
Current president of ACEA, the association of European automobile manufacturers, the CEO of Renault above all wants common standards for all manufacturers:
“We have to ask ourselves the question of competitiveness in Europe, because we live in an asymmetrical system, at least in the automobile industry, compared to the Americans and the Chinese, we are no longer in a flat world: the IRA (“American Law of Reducing Inflation”, editor’s note), Chinese manufacturers…”
The same rules of the game, without customs barriers
Luca de Meo insists in particular on the need to have “the same rules of the game”:
If the French ecological bonus favors models produced in Europe from next year, Luca de Meo opposes, on the contrary, the establishment of customs barriers in Europe to counteract the arrival of Chinese models:
“I like competition, he explains, I don’t see why we would close the doors to Chinese manufacturers after having had the Americans, the Japanese, the Koreans…”, he explains.
“You have to respect a principle of reciprocity: when we went to China, we had to do joint ventures, invest there, come with suppliers, etc… but I don’t see any reason why we should close the door (to foreign manufacturers). , editor’s note) especially if they bring products that are good for European consumers, it’s up to us to respond and be competitive.”
If he accepts the European decision to ban the sale of new thermal cars from 2035, the Renault boss regrets that there are no alternative plans:
“We have to adapt: we should have plans A, B or C like the ones we have in Formula 1, it can rain, it rains, there is a crash… at the moment there is only ‘Plan A’.
Source: BFM TV
