PARIS: The boss of Renault on Thursday presented a plan for deeper cost-cutting measures as part of a drive to turn around the ailing French carmaker in the next five years.
Fixed costs are to be slashed by 3 billion euros ($3.6 billion) by 2025. Previously, the aim had been 2 billion euros in savings by 2022.
The new target is part of a comprehensive blueprint by Renault’s new chief executive Luca de Meo, who wants to start accelerating the company’s electric vehicle strategy.
Renault’s future line-up of vehicles will be “tech-infused, electrified and competitive,” he said in a statement.
“We’ll move from a car company working with tech to a tech company working with cars, making at least 20 per cent of its revenues from services, data and energy trading by 2030.”
But first, he must get Renault to turn a profit. Renault posted a7.3-billion-euro loss for the first half of 2020 as it - along with its Japanese partner Nissan - reeled from the coronavirus crisis.
Figures for the full year are to be presented in mid-February.
As part of his focus on profits and efficiencies, De Meo said the number of cars produced will fall to 3.1 million over the next five years. Last year the number was 4 million.
The firm announced last year that it would cut around 15,000 jobs worldwide. De Meo’s plan does not include additional cuts, company sources said.
Renault has also suffered turbulence in its three-way alliance with Nissan and Japan’s Mitsubishi Motors, which was shaken in late 2018by the arrest of Carlos Ghosn, then head of all three firms. — dpa
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