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Rumors of a rapprochement between Renault and Stellantis are becoming more and more insistent. Some rumors even speak of a merger between the two groups but it seems more plausible that a sensational industrial agreement to reduce costs, especially of small electric vehicles, and stem the Chinese advance.
Moreover, Carlos Tavares, CEO of Stellantis, has indicated in recent days that the car industry must necessarily face a new phase of consolidation because in recent years between the pandemic and the race to go electric in stages, the scenario has changed. Producing Bev – Battery electric vehicles – in a competitive way requires huge resources and therefore the main path, as often happens in the automotive sector, is to join forces through industrial agreements, exchanges of platforms and sharing of technologies or through mergers. Carlos Tavares himself, in an interview with Bloomberg, admitted that Renault would be vulnerable due to lack of scale.
Among other things, the company led by Luca de Meo, which also includes the Dacia brand, has just canceled the listing of Ampere, the new company dedicated to electric cars. At the moment the hypothesis of a pact, of any kind, between Stellantis and Renault is pure speculation among automotive insiders and journalists, certainly the idea of an agreement between the two companies also raises questions and fascinates. On the one hand, a European hub would be created, a sort of automotive Airbus, on the other, this new hypothetical alliance would have French traction but this aspect could, in theory, be mitigated by the presence of the Italian manager Luca de Meo in top positions . And at stake are the overlaps of the 15 Stellantis brands and the Renault brands (3 in total with Alpine). 18 brands and factories spread across the four corners of the globe. In the next few hours we will see what the moves of the two groups will be and the appointment is at the Geneva Motor Show in two weeks where Renault will be practically alone on the showcase to challenge the Chinese manufacturers.
Stellantis in the meantime does not comment. A spokesperson for the group says: “We do not comment on unfounded speculation by some media outlets.”