According to Reuters, on January 10, ivan Segal, the French sales director of the automaker Renault brand, said that Renault is pinning its hopes on price cuts for new models and Megane models to help it compete with American rival Tesla in the domestic French market.
Renault was once a pioneer in the electric vehicle market with alliance partner Nissan, but is now being overtaken by a new competitor. Last year, the French automaker sold nearly 180,000 megane electric cars, while Tesla sold 250,000 Model 3 and 3With more than 70,000 Model Y, it is the leader in the French electric vehicle market. In addition, for the whole of 2023, the Chinese MG brand sold a total of 20,000 MG4 vehicles in the French market.
"The main focus of the Renault brand in 2024 is to relaunch its offensive in the field of electric vehicles," Segal said. Renault's counterattack includes the launch of a new electric car, the Scenic, and the arrival of the R5 in the second half of the year, with two models that will succeed the ZOE and Twingo.
Renault did not follow Tesla's price cut policy last year, but in January this year it also decided to reduce the starting price of the megane by 10%, from 38,000 euros to 34,000 euros. However, after the implementation of the new subsidy policy for electric vehicles in France, the Tesla Model 3 and MG4 are not eligible for the subsidy in France**, so after the subsidy is included, the Megane is much cheaper than the Tesla Model 3, and even cheaper than the MG4.
"There is more competition in terms of selling price or leasing than it was a few months ago, and it will take a few years for the EV market to stabilize," Segal said. (Gasgoo Ramy).
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*: Gasgoo.