Renault’s turnaround is underpinned by cars you actually want

“The fastest turnaround in the recent history of automotive” read one of the captions on a recent Renault Group video reflecting on the first 1000 days of its ‘Renaulution’ turnaround plan.

It’s not hyperbole either: Renault has gone from loss making in 2020 from just under 3 million sales to having an enviable 7.9% operating margin from 2.2m sales in 2023, while also increasing revenues by around a quarter at the same time. 

Renault’s foundations solidified, a key part of the next phase of the Renaulution plan is democratising electric cars, while making them cars you truly desire to own. 

Fabrice Cambolive, the Renault brand CEO, is currently overseeing the launch of the flagbearer of the Renaulution project: the reborn 5. 

Making such desirable EVs are crucial in helping “break the glass roof” on EV sales, which need another “breakthrough” after “plateauing”, according to Cambolive. The 5 and upcoming 4 “combine emotion and new technology, and we are convinced that those cars will help us to get ahead”. There’ll be no need to push sales, he insists.

Cambolive is preparing a renewed global push for Renault, too, not just through exporting models but by setting up local operations, harking back to the days of the 4 where it was not just sold but made in all corners of the world. 

“If you really want to be important in a market, you have to be on two legs: on one, a good capacity to sell on the local market, but on the other, a good capacity to export. For that, you have to be localised.”

China though is off limits for now, a market that’s increasingly unsustainable and difficult to operate in for western car makers, although Renault is partnering with an unspecified Chinese partner to develop the new Twingo electric city car.

Reflecting on recent progress, I put it to Cambolive that all of a sudden Renault seems to have a lot of similarly-sized cars in similar segments – the 5 and the 4 sit alongside the Clio and the Captur in the B-segment, and in the C-segment there are six crossover offerings.

He “doesn’t see the line-up as complicated” and this was more a case of “launching almost all the cars in the last months. It means we have to establish them, and frankly speaking we have two-three years to really extract the best potential of these cars”.

And in a reference to the likes of Stellantis and Volkswagen, “if you look at it coldly, Renault is three brands [with Dacia and Alpine], four with Mobilize, and we don’t share many cars between brands”, which will naturally mean Renault has to do more heavy lifting itself.

Still, there’s a sense of pride in the Renault badge again and it feels like a brand in the ascendancy. “In the past our names were even sometimes stronger than the brand. Espace, Scenic, Clio… Now, we are capable of mixing cars that are really well known but under the Renault umbrella. This is very important.”