Renault, Nissan & Mitsubishi Motors announce a common roadmap that’s been a long time coming

Renault Group, Nissan Motor and Mitsubishi Motors; members of one of the world’s leading automotive alliances, have announced a common roadmap that’ll shape their directions with more cooperation towards 2030.

Better late than never right?

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Continuing the Leader-Follower scheme defined in May 2020, select technology will be developed by one leading team with the support of the followers, thereby allowing each member of the Alliance to access all the key technologies.

The Alliance members have developed a “smart differentiation” methodology that defines the desired level of commonality for each vehicle, integrating several parameters of possible pooling that includes platforms, plants, and powertrains.

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Take the common platform for the C and D-segment that’ll carry five models from three brands of the Alliance (Nissan Qashqai and X-Trail, Mitsubishi Outlander, Renault Austral, and an upcoming seven-seater SUV).

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Strengthening this process, the Alliance members will enhance usage of common platforms in the coming years from 60 percent today to more than 80 percent of its combined 90 models in 2026. This will allow each company to focus on customers’ needs, their best models and core markets, while also extending innovations across the Alliance at a lower cost.

Part of this will see Mitsubishi Motors reinforce its presence in Europe with two new models; one of which will be the new ASX based on Renault best-sellers.

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Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi have pioneered the EV market, with more than 10 billion Euros (~RM46.7 billion) already invested in electrification. In the main markets (Europe, Japan, the US, China) 15 Alliance plants already produce parts, motors and batteries for 10 EV models on the streets, with more than 1 million EV cars sold so far and 30 billion e-kilometers driven.

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Building on this unique expertise, the Alliance is accelerating with a total 23 billion Euros (~RM107.3 billion) more investment in the next five years on electrification, leading to 35 new EV models by 2030.

Five common EV platforms will underpin 90 percent of their models:

• CMF-AEV, the most affordable platform in the world, is the base for the new Dacia Spring
• KEI-EV (mini vehicle) platform family for ultra-compact EVs
• LCV-EV Family platform family for professional customers, as the base for the Renault Kangoo and Nissan Town Star
• CMF-EV, the global, flexible, EV platform. It will be on the roads in a few weeks as the base for the Nissan Ariya EV crossover and Renault Megane E-Tech Electric. The platform, with the potential offered by its modularity, is a benchmark platform for a new generation of electric vehicles for the Alliance. The platform has been created to integrate and optimise all the elements specific to a pure electric powertrain. By 2030, more than 15 models will be based on the CMF-EV platform, with up to 1.5 million cars produced on this platform per year.
• CMF-BEV, the most competitive compact electric platform in the world, to be launched in 2024. It provides up to 400 km range; its aerodynamics performances are outstanding, helping reduce cost by 33 percent and power consumption by more than 10 percent compared to the current Renault Zoe. It will be the base for 250,000 vehicles a year under the Renault, Alpine and Nissan brands.

The Alliance is working with common partners to achieve real scale and affordability, enabling to reduce battery costs by 50 percent in 2026 and 65 percent by 2028. With this approach, by 2030, the Alliance will have a total of 220 GWh battery production capacity for EVs across key production sites in the world.

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Beyond that, the Alliance shares a common vision for all-solid-state battery technology (ASSB) with Nissan leading innovations in this field.

The aim is to mass produce ASSB by mid-2028, and in the future beyond that to realize cost parity with ICE vehicles by bringing costs down further to USD 65 (~RM 272) per kWh.

The Alliance is working with strategic partners to offer the best proposal to customers for public charging on the road. Mobilize Power Solutions provides B2B customers a complete end-to-end service including project design, installation, maintenance and management of optimised recharging infrastructure.

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A recent agreement with Ionity will allow its customers to access; at preferential pricing, the Ionity ultra-fast charging network in Europe.

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With 20 years’ experience in ADAS (advanced driver-assistance systems) and autonomous drive, the Alliance keeps improving real-world driving safety, convenience, and enjoyment with an example being Nissan’s ProPILOT system.

With shared platforms and electronics, Alliance members expect to have more than 10 million vehicles on the road across 45 Alliance models equipped with autonomous driving systems by 2026.

Today, 3 million vehicles are already connected to the Alliance Cloud with permanent data exchanges. By 2026, more than 5 million Alliance cloud systems vehicles will be delivered per year, with 25 million total cars on the road. The Alliance will also be the first global, mass-market OEM to introduce the Google ecosystem in its cars.

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The Alliance aims to launch its first full software defined vehicle by 2025. This means value for customers with the integration of their car into their digital ecosystem to offering a personalised experience, enhanced services and reduced maintenance costs. In addition, software defined vehicles will be able to communicate with connected objects, users and infrastructure, opening new fields of value for the Alliance.