The project symbolizes the biggest change in automotive history: electrification. The plan is a key part of Renault's 'Boss' Luca de Meo's strategy to rebuild the automaker

An ambitious mega project by Renault boss Luca de Meo symbolizes the biggest change in automotive history: electrification. The super project should be announced by the French multinational this week and the automaker will present ElectriCity, a project that brings together in a single subsidiary its three sites in Douai, Maubeuge and Ruitz to make it a vast electric vehicle production center in France.

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The cause is heard: the future of the automobile is electric. Month after month, new vehicle sales figures are forcing a revision of long-term forecasts. In May, in France, hybrid vehicles accounted for 26% of new car sales, with 36.221 registrations, against 22% for diesel vehicles.

The EV hub, which could produce up to 400.000 vehicles, is a key part of CEO Luca de Meo's strategy to get the struggling automaker out and ramp up production of electric and hybrid vehicles. The move would also help fulfill a promise to the French state, Renault's most powerful shareholder, to preserve jobs and EV technology in France.

The first car to leave Douai will be the new electric Megane-E, whose assembly lines are being set up. In this model, Renault's hopes remain to return to the battle of the C segment, intermediate and valued in the European market.

Segment B, below C, popular with French drivers, is not overlooked. Renault is expected to announce that ElectriCity will host the assembly platform for the future electric R5, due for launch in 2024. Taking stylistic codes from its glorious predecessor, launched just after the 1973 oil crisis, this future model is also eagerly awaited. .

Renault imitates its competitor Toyota and bets on more expensive cars

The CEO, Luca de Meo, a marketing expert, confirmed the end of the “race for volumes” (seeking to increase the number of vehicles sold at all costs, at the risk of low profitability), decided by the interim management, which followed the surprise departure of Carlos. Ghosn: the future Renault should be more opulent, go up the market, and therefore sold a little more expensive.

Luca de Meo never hid this and, for him, it is a matter of imitating the work of Carlos Tavares at rival PSA (today Stellantis), which manages to make a much greater profit on each vehicle sold than that made by Renault. However, it is from another manufacturer that comes Luciano Biondo, who will lead ElectriCity.

This Italian, former head of the Toyota plant in Valenciennes, which produces small Yaris, has carved a fine reputation for himself as an efficient man and open to social dialogue. Finally, close to the site could be created a large electric battery factory led by Envision, a Chinese operator.

Multinational Ford, which closed its factories in Brazil, is preparing for the sale of the Ceará brand of 4×4 Troller jeeps and 470 jobs are at stake in the state

After ceasing to manufacture vehicles and closing its factories in Brazil, the automaker Ford Motor should sell the Troller factory in Horizonte (CE) by the end of June, according to the Secretary of Economic Development and Labor of Ceará, Maia Júnior. In an interview with CBN radio, Maia confirmed that a group from the automotive engineering sector showed interest in acquiring the plant.

The Ceará State Government is acting as an intermediary in the negotiation, and has promised tax incentives to the company that acquires the Ford complex, especially if it focuses on clean energy. “Our priority is to maintain jobs,” Maia told CBN.

“I cannot specify, because it is a relationship between seller and buyer. I have positioned myself as a facilitator. We are supporting potential buyers, because the state government is interested in the continuity of the factory and, therefore, the maintenance of jobs”, said Maia Júnior to O Povo CBN radio. According to him, Ford wants to close a deal by the end of June.

The Troller factory in Ceará generates 470 direct jobs and employees are at risk of being fired, as happened with the closure of the Ford factory in Camaçari (BA), which left more than five thousand people unemployed. "We want the future buyer to come with advances in the automotive industry that are not restricted to production", says the secretary.