Born giant, Ampere will make a R$ 100 thousand electric Twingo

By Redação AutoIndústria | 11/16/23 | Translated by Jorge Meditsch

Claiming the intention to democratize electric vehicle offer in Europe and become one of the world’s main electric car manufacturers, Ampere, a Renault Group startup officially born on November 1, announced some of its first steps to achieve these aims.

The company, which already has 11 thousand employees, 35% engineers and 1.8 thousand working on software and technological innovation, estimated this Wednesday, November 15, to reach one million yearly vehicles by 2031.

Luca De Meo, Ampere’s president and Renault’s CEO, said he expects to achieve then a € 25 billion yearly revenue – € 10 billion already in two years, when it is expected a yearly 300 thousand vehicles production.

To achieve those numbers in such a short term, the company was born already counting on important assets, such as electromobility-dedicated platforms, an already-existent industrial chain and a defined product lineup.

The current Douai and Maubeuge production facilities, part of the ElectriCity, Ruitz and Cléon complex in France, can initially produce together 400 thousand vehicles yearly, and the capacity should grow to 620 thousand by 2028.

By 2031, there will be at least seven Renault vehicles being produced and initially sold in Europe: the Megane E-Tech and Scenic E-Tech, already in the market; in 2024 and 2025 the Renault 5 and Renault 4 and, afterward, the Legend, an updated version of the Twingo, besides two other models still undercover.

Ampere’s IPO is scheduled for the first half of 2024. Besides Renault, which will maintain a strong share of the startup, Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors shall invest up to € 8 billion. Qualcomm Technologies, which already cooperates with Ampere together with Google, is also considering investing in it.

Ampere expects to even costs between combustion and electric B and C segment cars by 2027. The two segments should account for 75% of the electric car market by 2030. The platforms to make them are already known: the AmpR Small (previously CMF-B EV) for the B segment and the AmpR Medium (former CMF-EV) for the C segment.

To achieve price parity, Ampere expects a battery price reduction of 50% for the same range, less 25% on motor and platform costs, 15% on body and 50% lower logistics and production costs.

Scheduled to launch in the first quarter of 2024, the Renault 5 will have up to 400-kilometer range and an entry price of about € 25 thousand. The future electric Twingo, the Legend, will be an urban vehicle costing from € 20 thousand, about R$ 100 thousand.

The partner companies will adopt the architectures, production and commercial platforms used in the future Renault models. Ampere should produce at least two models for Alpine, a Renault Group brand, the future Nissan Micra and one model for Mitsubishi.