When Renault announced the signing of Luca de Meo as the group’s new CEO, changes were predicted. This Italian businessman left Seat at the top, with indisputable data within the Volkswagen group and the birth of Cupra as an individual brand. The effect has not been long in coming and Renault presented its Renaulution plan in mid-January, with much noteworthy news framed in a single objective: to return to being a profitable company.
As is customary for de Meo, the path set goes not only through the restructuring of the workforce in the factories, but also through the strengthening of the image of the group’s brands: Renault, Dacia, Lada and Alpine . All these headers are going to have their prominence but the presentation of the Lada Niva Vision left us all speechless. The mythical Russian model is reborn from its ashes thanks to its close collaboration with Dacia, of which the future Bigster was also shown.
The Renaulution Plan will be carried out in three phases and will start in 2022 with a readjustment of the company to save 2 billion euros in expenses. This inevitably makes us think about the company’s workforce but, for now, the group’s Spanish factories are safe (Valladolid, Palencia and Seville) . The Resurrection will arrive in 2023 to give way to the Renewal, focused on the product and with high-profile launches that we will talk about below. For 2025 they await the moment of the Revolution, a turning point in which not only will talk about cars but also about mobility, energy and technology.
To save money they must not only lay off, but also restructure a product range that is too dependent on unprofitable segments. Renault, and its sub-brands, sell a lot of compact and utility cars so their profit margins are lower. To attack this weak point, Luca de Meo intends to turn the tables, giving importance to other more profitable segments (C and D). It has also reduced the amalgam of platforms and available engines, leaving only three architectures on which all the group’s models will be manufactured (CMF-B, CMF CD and CMF) in addition to collaborations with Nissan and Mitsubishi.
