Renault names Luca de Meo as head of electric vehicle unit

Renault, a French automaker has announced the appointment of Luca de Meo as its group chief executive as the future chairman and CEO of Ampere, the electric vehicle division which Renault is aiming to list on the stock market.

Renault said its board of directors had also set up an ad-hoc committee, chaired by Jean-Dominique Senard, to oversee the envisaged initial public offering (IPO) of Ampere.

Renault expects Ampere to be profitable as soon as 2025 and for it to break even on free cash flow by then. By the end of the decade, it expects Ampere to have a double-digit operating profit margin.
Ampere will rely on cars such as the Megane E-Tech electric, shown, to help it become profitable.

The Ampere spinoff is part of de Meo’s reorganization of Renault to compete better in EVs and software-defined cars. De Meo is trying to raise funds for EV development and narrow the gap with larger rivals such as Stellantis.
The revamp includes pooling its legacy combustion-engine assets with Geely into a division called Horse and separately listing Ampere.

Read also: Summit to harness leadership skills in career women to hold in Lagos

It was gathered that Nissan has pledged to buy as much as 15 percent of Ampere, with junior alliance partner Mitsubishi Motors considering an investment. Qualcomm, the largest maker of smartphone processors, will also back the business.

Ampere will have about 10,000 employees, with about one-third of engineers and significant software know-how.
“Ampere is about to hit the ground running, supported by unmatched assets from Day 1: one of the most integrated EV value chains in the industry, a pioneering approach to Software Defined Vehicle, and state-of-the-art engineering and manufacturing capabilities,” de Meo said on Monday.

The auto industry’s transition to EVs is accelerating. The year 2026 has emerged as a tipping point for an acceleration in EV adoption that will drive automotive electrification trends ahead.

Ampere is targeting a 30 percent compound annual growth rate until 2030 as well as a cost reduction of 40 percent on a car-by-car basis when its next generation of vehicles rolls off production lines from 2027, the automaker said.