Renault Embleme due in 2028 as first of radical new EV family

“People are expressing concerns about the EV market plateauing,” de Meo added, “and don’t count on me to say that everything is fine: there are obviously huge challenges, and I think Europe must fix them urgently. But I also think it's important that we put the focus back on the big future. And I would say from a long-term perspective, in fact, EV is the future, or at least it's a very big part of the future.”

The EV market, he said, “is where growth is going to happen for the automotive industry in Europe”, while “the rest of the market will be flat or potentially declining” - justifying the decision to spin off Ampere from Renault a year ago.

Already, de Meo said, there is “scientifically no doubt” that an EV has a lower carbon footprint than an ICE alternative from cradle to grave, and Ampere’s development efforts mean Renault’s EVs will have a 70% smaller carbon footprint than their ICE counterparts by 2030.

Furthermore, he said that EVs are already cheaper than ICE cars from a total cost of ownership perspective and suggested that work to increase battery energy density, reduce production costs and make cars more efficient overall will help to further widen that disparity.

New battery tech

Among the most significant technical developments for Renault’s new-generation EVs will be the introduction of much more energy-dense battery packs, which it said will combine "the energy density of nickel-manganese-cobalt [NMC chemistry], the cost and safety of lithium-iron-phosphate [LFP chemistry] and less than 15-minute charges".

Chemistry currently accounts for 60-75% of a battery’s cost, Renault said, which is the main factor in their price premium compared with ICE alternatives and the key incentive to invest in new types of cell that can reduce the cost to consumer.

From 2026, Renault will swap its mainstream EV batteries from NMC to LFP, which it says will reduce costs by 20% while having no impact on range.

Ampere has worked with Renault’s EV platform developers to design a new cell-to-pack battery arrangement to compensate for the inherent reduced efficiency of LFP compared with NMC, so the cost reduction won't be accompanied by any drop in energy output.

The company will boost that cost reduction to 50% (compared with today) by 2028, with the introduction of a new chemistry that combines a cobalt-free cathode with a silicon anode, which it says gives the energy density of NMC at the cost – and with the safety credentials – of LFP. An added benefit, it said, is that this chemistry allows for much quicker (15-minute) charging times.

Then, within the next decade, Ampere will look to double the energy density of its NMC packs by replacing the silicon anode with a lithium metal alternative - a composition that it refers to as the “building block” for solid state technology, which Renault plans to have in a production car within the next decade.

Alliance partner Nissan notably has confirmed plans to sell a solid-state EV from 2028, but when pressed for details about whether Renault could match that timeline, Ampere’s head of cell chemistry development, Mohamed Taggougui, would only say that the company was “talking to” its Japanese counterparts.

Renault’s engineers highlighted that 25-40% of the cost of a battery pertains to integration costs – by which they mean the casing and the way it's mounted into the chassis – and halving that cost by 2028 is also key to Ampere’s plans.

Crucial developments here include the adoption of a new cell-to-pack battery design that maximises usable capacity, and work is in progress to adopt a cell-to-chassis arrangement in upcoming EVs, further increasing efficiency.

Cutting carbon footprint

At the heart of Renault’s electrification strategy is a push to dramatically reduce the carbon footprint of both its cars and its global operations.

That ambition is symbolised by the Emblème concept, which is projected to have a total lifecycle (15 years or 200,000km) carbon footprint of just five tonnes, compared with the circa-50 tonnes emitted by a petrol-engined, current-generation Captur.