Is the Airbus model possible for electric cars in Europe?

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Renault has called for a merger between the leading companies of the Old Continent

At the Geneva Motor Show, Renault floated the idea of ​​implementing an automotive version like Airbus planes, so European manufacturers could control the raw materials and production of electric cars, as well as make them cheaper. To achieve this, Luca de Meo, Renault’s chief executive, is proposing an Airbus-style alliance of manufacturers to share costs.

Is the idea brilliant? What if the transition to electric cars goes through an association like Airbus, the consortium that, as we know, unites dozens of European companies and has established itself as a giant in aircraft construction, as is the American Boeing?

“We have to be creative to find a solution,” says De Meo, referring to the exorbitant development costs as well as the manufacturing processes of electric cars.

“The goal is, as we know,

to develop more cheap electric cars

and mass sell these products. But at the moment it is very difficult, because Western manufacturers do not have access to resources, and everyone working alone in their own corner, valuable time is wasted”, adds the Italian, who is also the president of ASEA (Association of European Automobile Manufacturers).

15 years ago, Citroen C1 had two twins – Toyota Aygo and Peugeot 107.

For Luca de Meo, the challenge would be

to create a value chain in Europe that includes batteries, electric motors and electronics

This is exactly what China has done with large government subsidies. And it worked, because the populous Asian country already outperforms all manufacturers on this metric.

“The goal is to buy everything in Europe at a competitive price,” explains Renault’s executive director.

Luca de Meo

Europe had a shared city car 15 years ago from Toyota, Peugeot and Citroen (Aygo, 107 and C1), or the common “Type 4” platform in the 1980s that served Alfa Romeo, Fiat, Lancia and Saab, but they were for cars with internal combustion engines.

The strong man at Renault wants not only car manufacturers to unite, but also European countries to take an active part in financing this transition. The Italian manager recalled that the largest shareholders of Airbus are not anyone, but the French, German and Spanish governments.

Recently, the boss of the largest Stellantis group, Carlos Tavares, also pushed the idea of ​​a megamerger in the automotive sector as the only possible way to consolidate the activities of manufacturers.

Rumors have mentioned Renault as the first option for a merger. However, this was denied and some sources instead

are reporting negotiations between the French brand and the German giant Volkswagen

to build a low-cost electric car based on the future Twingo and the new Renault 5 E-Tech. This is very likely because the VW group has established partnerships with Chinese manufacturers and is also considering this model with Hyundai. If Renault produced a small car with VW, it would also have to use “cheaper lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries”, says Luca de Meo.

The Italian also asked Europe to relax the rules and allow very small cars (such as the Japanese kei models) in urban areas and therefore in low-emission zones. For him

reducing taxes on these vehicles looks more promising

from the purchase bonuses.

Renault is not the least advanced manufacturer in the matter of cheap electric cars, as together with the arrival of the new R5, the brand intends to launch a new Twingo, whose price should be under 20,000 euros. But time is running out because, as the Renault executive pointed out, “speed is important against the Chinese. We live in an uncertain world. In the past with internal combustion cars you could predict what would happen. Today, it really isn’t like that anymore…”