Decarbonization, competitiveness and resilience: the challenge of the coming years

How to decarbonize the industrial sector? This was the theme of a panel discussion at the latest edition of the ChangeNOW solutions for the planet fair held in Paris from April 24 to 26. A symbolic edition as it comes ten years after the signing of the Paris Agreement and the landmark decision to keep the increase in global average temperature "well below" 2°C compared to pre-industrial levels.

Among the speakers at this panel, Josep-Maria Recasens, Renault Group’s strategy director and CEO of Ampere, and Cléa Martinet, Renault Group’s sustainability director and CSO of Ampere, highlighted the scale of the challenges facing the European automotive industry such as increased regulation, uncertainties over technological developments, volatile raw material prices, competition from China, geopolitical tensions and their impact on world trade tariffs... A common thread running through almost all these challenges is the issue of decarbonization and the fast-paced energy transition to which the automotive sector is committed to reduce its impact on climate.

Under the impetus of the Renaulution strategic plan, launched in 2021, Renault Group is committed to meeting the challenge of decarbonization and reducing the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions resulting from its activities, both upstream and downstream of vehicle manufacturing.

Reducing emissions responsible for global warming

Between 2019 and 2024, the company managed to reduce CO₂e emissions from the usage phase of its vehicles by 40%, while emissions produced during the manufacturing phase decreased by 50% over the same period.

Several factors explain such results. As part of its strategic plan Renaulution, Renault Group has positioned decarbonization at the same level as competitiveness and performance indicators. The goal was to bring a transversal approach to sustainable development at all levels of the company.

Electric vehicles, the main lever for decarbonizing the automotive sector

Above all, transitioning to electric vehicles is the most radical solution to reduce our impact, emphasized Josep Maria Recasens and Cléa Martinet in their speech at ChangeNOW. Electric motorization does not produce emissions at the exhaust, thus its carbon footprint, calculated over the entire life cycle of the car, is halved compared to a thermal vehicle! Today, the company has about ten electric vehicles within its brands, fifteen if hybrid motorization is included.

To accelerate in this field, Renault Group has chosen to create an entity dedicated solely to electric vehicles and software, Ampere, and has established a competitive ecosystem bringing together assembly plants, an electric motor production site within the Electricity hub, and gigafactories of our partners AESC and Verkor to manufacture batteries.

The energy transition must ensure the employability of our employees

The transition to electric requires specific skills and expertise, different from those related to thermal technology. It requires a significant training effort. This challenge has also been met by Renault Group in recent years through various training campuses grouped under the umbrella of our corporate university, ReKnow University. Created in 2021, this unique university has trained nearly 40,000 people to date.

Democratizing small electric vehicles

Next challenge? Contributing to the rise of electric cars, whose share of sales in Europe was still only 13.6% at the end of 2024. This situation is partly attributed to the manufacturing costs of EVs, and therefore their price. Again, Renault Group relies on its entity Ampere, which has already managed to reduce the development time of Twingo from five to two years. This allows for an entry price for the car of 20,000 euros.

And he concludes that the advent of more sustainable European mobility cannot be achieved at the expense of the competitiveness and profitability of the automotive sector, which accounts for 7% of the European Union's GDP, 13 million jobs, 10% of EU exports and almost 60 billion euros in R&D expenditure every year.

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