As Reuters anticipated, Renault, Nissan, and Mitsubishi indeed announced a joint plan to promote electrification. However, the numbers were a little off. They will not invest €30 billion ($33.6 billion at the current exchange rate) but €23 billion ($25.7 billion). They will also have 35 new EVs, not 30. One of them will be the new Nissan Micra, the Japanese carmaker’s version of the Renault 5.
To be honest, both the new Micra, the Renault 5, and the Renault 4ever will be built over the CMF B-EV platform. All of them will be made at Renault's ElectriCity, more specifically at the Douai plant. The three companies also announced the names of the five dedicated EV architectures their 35 new EVs will have.
We were aware of the CMF-EV, the CMF B-EV, and the one based on the CMF-A, which we bet would be called CMF A-EV, and we were right. The other two are the KEI-EV – for kei cars in Japan – and the LCV-EV. This last one will be focused on commercial vehicles such as the Renault Kangoo and the Nissan Town Star.
The CMF-EV platform will be responsible for most of these new electric cars. The Alliance plans to have 15 new vehicles based on it by 2030, leaving 20 cars for the other four electric platforms, or five for each if we are to expect an even distribution.
The first vehicles based on the CMF B-EV should be presented in 2024, which means we should see both the new Nissan Micra and the Renault 5 by that time. Expect the Renault 5 to be the first presentation, just like the Nissan Ariya was introduced before the Renault Megane E-Tech Electric.
Regarding the new Nissan Micra, the Japanese automaker released a teaser of the new EV that reminds us very much of the original Nissan Juke. It has an unusual DRL that seems to draw a massive round headlight, which is not the case. The actual headlights seem to be inserted in a strip right in the middle of the DRL.
The three automakers said they want to have a joint battery production capacity of 220 GWh per year by 2030. Nissan confirmed its solid-state battery would be available to all members of the Alliance and that it would be available by 2028.
What is new is the promise that Alliance will present its “first full-software-defined vehicle by 2025,” whatever that means. It seems it has to do with a car that is capable of dealing with OTA (over-the-air) updates.
Google News