Renault CEO Luca de Meo will officially unveil his major reorganization plan on 14 January. What this ‘Renaulution’ will look like was already largely known. Now, however, some concrete points of the plan have been leaked in an internal memo, which is in the hands of Automobilwoche.
It has been known for some time that De Meo has been brooding on a reorganization plan. Groupe Renault wants to make significant savings by, among other things, reducing production capacity and scrapping a mere 15,000 jobs. The memo does not yet mention a concrete number, but rather talks about a cut of € 2 billion. In addition, the company is divided into four main groups: Renault, Dacia, Alpine and ‘new mobilities’. With the latter category, Renault wants to profile itself more as a mobility provider. In the memo, De Meo already sets a specific goal: from 2026, 20 to 30 percent of Renault’s total business activities should consist of this.
In addition, Renault must become more compact. De Meo wants to reduce the number of models by 30 percent and focus mainly on the C segment. However, that will be quite a challenge, because at the same time the CEO states that this should not be at the expense of Renault’s market share. In terms of global ambitions, Renault is also going to sing a little lower. In Asia and South America in particular, the results are lower than expected, which means that a withdrawal from those markets is looming. Renault will remain active in China, but according to De Meo, the brand has to work hard there to be of any relevance. Presumably Nissan will play a leading role there.
The alliance
For Renault, the cooperation with Nissan and Mitsubishi remains important. The three brands will all be assigned their own tasks in the collaboration and that should ultimately lead to a saving of 40 percent on the total development costs. De Meo says it is especially important that collaborative projects in the future should be ‘more concrete and specific’. He says he wants to do everything he can to maintain the bond between the trinity.
The reorganization plan will be given a more concrete interpretation on 14 January. The memo does not yet mention Alpine’s future. De Meo previously said he sees a greater role for the sub-brand, including serving as Renault’s new sporty label. This will probably become clearer in the coming month.