The Renault-Nissan Alliance today announced forming a new joint venture with Chinese state-owned Dongfeng Motor, to co-develop and sell electric vehicles (EV) in China.
The new JV eGT New Energy Automotive Co., Ltd. will focus on delivering competitive electric vehicles for the Chinese market. That’s right, the focus is only on the Chinese market.
Renault said that the eGT will design a new EV with intelligent interconnectivity, that will be in line with the expectations of Chinese customers. It will be jointly developed by the Alliance and Dongfeng on the Renault-Nissan Alliance’s A-segment SUV platform. It will draw on the global leadership on EV technologies and cost-effective car design experience from the Alliance, and the competitive manufacturing costs from Dongfeng.
Which means, the plan is to develop all new EVs just for the Chinese market, and not to build and sell the existing EVs like Nissan Leaf or Renault Zoe.
“The establishment of the new joint venture with Dongfeng confirms our common commitment to develop competitive electric vehicles for the Chinese market,” said Carlos Ghosn, chairman and chief executive officer of the Renault-Nissan Alliance. “We are confident to meet the expectations of the Chinese customers and to strengthen our global electric vehicle leadership position.”
“This project is the result of a joint effort to develop electric vehicles for the Chinese market, by the ‘Golden Triangle’ formed by Dongfeng, Renault and Nissan, with an innovative business model,” said Zhu Yanfeng, Chairman of Dongfeng. “We expect to meet the transformation trend of the market in China; where cars are becoming light, electric, intelligent, interconnected and shared. This is also testimony of a deepened and strengthened strategic cooperation between the three parties.”
Renault and Nissan will hold 25 percent each of eGT, and Dongfeng the remaining 50 percent.
The newly formed eGT is planned to be based in the City of Shiyan, Hubei Province in central China. The electric vehicle will be produced at the Dongfeng plant of Shiyan which has a production and sales capacity of 120,000 vehicles a year. The companies expect to start the production in 2019.
According to the China Association of automobile manufacturers, China is the world’s largest BEV market. In 2016, 256 879 BEV were sold in China, up 121 percent from the previous year. In the first seven months of 2017, production of BEVs reached 223,000 units and sales 204,000 units, representing an increase of 37.8 percent and 33.6 percent respectively. The new move aims to tap the potential of the fast-growing Chinese segment of the market.
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