A small electric car between 20 and 25,000 euros. This is what French automakers anticipate in the middle of the decade. As Carlos Tavares recalled this week in France Newsa small electric car like the electric Peugeot 208 costs around 30,000 euros today when the equivalent thermal model is around 20,000.
“This reflects the difference in price between thermal and electric,” explains the general manager of Stellantis. This especially excludes many buyers.
This gap will be reduced, however Carlos Tavares anticipates: “In our forecasts, in 2026, we will have an equal cost structure between the two technologies [électrique et thermique, ndlr]”.
Common elements
For market specialists, 25,000 euros seems to be the pivotal price to generalize the electric car to buyers, even lowering certain subsidies. Therefore, GPs have put everything in place to achieve this goal. This is the case of Renault, which is also committed to French production of a large part of its electric range. The automaker’s next small electric car, the R5, has been designed to hit that price target.
All part of its CMF-BEV platform. This platform cousin of the CMF-B dedicated to thermal engines, but here adapted to electric ones, allows the use of many common components: “front axle, air conditioning”, tells us Gilles Le Borgne, director of R&D of the Renault Group . “It gives very large volumes”, he continues, which translates into lower purchasing costs.
This platform will then equip a whole family: R5, but also the future 4L and replacement for the Micra. Giving hope for even more volumes thanks to common dashboards, at the same infotainment the R5 will also benefit from reduced “diversity” as auto engineers call it. This means that the number of different finishes, options and versions will be limited.
A suitable industrial tool
Renault also worked on its industrial tool: the new Electricity division. The R5 will thus leave the chains of Douai (North), a factory whose vast majority of suppliers (80%) will end up less than 300 kilometers away, as explained by Luciano Biondo, director of the pole, in the new factory“If we want to produce electric cars in a sustainable way in the country, that means having the components as close as possible to the factories.”
Renault has also worked on the batteries of the future vehicle, an important cost item. Investments in the R5 battery gigafactory are backed by Sino-Japanese partner Envision. The size of the batteries (40kWh for about 300 kilometers of autonomy in the smallest version) also allows to contain its cost.
The volatile prices of electric cars
Hitting this bet on a vehicle between 20 and 25,000 euros remains a complex equation in a context of exploding material prices.
“We must not forget one fundamental thing: the price of electric vehicles is very exposed to the price of raw materials, and this price is an important part of the cost structure of batteries and therefore what we can foresee is that depending on the fluctuation of the cost of raw materials, the price of electric vehicles will also be volatile”, warns Carlos Tavares.
A rise that is already being felt. The Dacia Spring, marketed at its launch at 16,990 euros, is now marketed at 19,800 euros in the entry range. They are almost 3,000 euros more.
Source: BFM TV
