An unofficial fuel cell alliance is forming in France as Faurecia will supply hydrogen tanks for the new fleet of FC commercial vehicles Renault plans to launch at the end of this year. Faurecia will design and manufacture these tanks in France and is already preparing for expansion.

In order to be able to sell the production version of the all-electric Renault 5 Prototype, planned for 2023, at a profit, Renault is considering the use of LFP batteries. The price range of the Renault 5 is said to be between 20,000 and 30,000 euros.

Nissan confirms plans for its next generation of vans in Europe. The new series will include electric and conventional drives and cover both the light commercial vehicle and passenger van segment. All vans will be made in France.

It is looking like Renault also wants to revive the Renault 4 as an electric model after the Renault 5. A number of media reports indicate that the electric Renault 4 could follow the production version of the all-electric Renault 5 Prototype study from 2025, which will be built from 2023.

As manufacturers scrambled to meet EU (and Swiss) CO2 compliance levels with a last-minute registrations splash-and-dash in December, Schmidt Automotive Research crunched the numbers with some astonishing results.

Renault is indeed planning a production version of its recently unveiled all-electric Renault 5 concept. Renault will base the 5 on the new CMF-B EV platform for electric compact vehicles and will build the EV at the Douai plant near Lille, France from 2023.

Renault CEO Luca de Meo has presented his new strategy dubbed “Renaulution”. The Italian de Meo wants to give the French automaker a new business principle putting value above volume. Ten new electric models are to be launched by 2025.

Renault has presented its electric car sales statistics for 2020. According to the figures, the French automaker was able to sell 115,888 electric vehicles in Europe, around twice as many as in 2019. The company’s most successful electric model by far was, once again, the Renault Zoe.

Renault and fuel cell specialist Plug Power plan to establish a 50:50 joint venture in France by mid-2021. They target a share of more than 30 per cent of the fuel cell-powered light commercial vehicle (LCV) market in Europe.

The German Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) recorded over 43,000 new registrations of purely electric cars in Germany in December. Compared to the same month last year, electric cars thus increased by a full 660 per cent.

The French car rental and supermarket operator E.Leclerc has just ordered a whopping 3,000 Dacia Spring Electric and 1,000 Renault Zoe. One of the group’s goals is to offer the new Dacia Spring Electric in all 504  E.Leclerc rental outlets from 1 March 2021.

Renault Trucks has announced new battery options for its all-electric D Z.E. (16-tonne) and D Wide Z.E. (26-tonne) truck models. The trucks previously equipped with 50 kWh modules can now be ordered with 66 kWh modules. With the Master Z.E. electric van, the battery remains the same, but the payload is optionally increased.

In a former coal-fired power plant in Elverlingsen, Germany, a new stationary battery storage system made up of of electric car batteries has been put into operation. The project was jointly developed by Renault, the technology company The Mobility House and the electricity storage system expert Fenecon.

Renault releases the Captur E-TECH plug-in hybrid in the UK. Priced from £30,995 in the S Edition, the PHEV version of the best-selling Captur range is available with immediate effect. A hybrid powertrain will follow in 2021.

After pulling the option in Spain and the UK, Renault is removing the battery rental option in Germany for its Zoe and Kangoo Z.E. models starting 14 November. Renault is making an exception with the Twizy which will continue to be offered exclusively with battery rental.

The Council of the North London borough Islington has received its first six Renault Zoe. The arrival of the new vehicles also coincides with the upgrade of its fleet charging infrastructure. The rest of the 500 vehicle fleet is to follow in further electrification efforts.

Renault is putting two new projects for the second-life use of batteries from electric vehicles in the spotlight. Both ‘Advanced Battery Storage’ in France and ‘SmartHubs’ in the UK are aimed at helping to balance power grids as the share of renewable energy increases.

In a virtual event today, Groupe Renault presented two all-electric models. One for Renault sits on their dedicated CMF-EV platform expected in 2021, only now, it looks like the first model will not be an SUV.

Renault will deliver 141 units of its electric model Zoe to South Lanarkshire Council in Scotland. With 104 of the vehicles, the Council’s pool vehicle fleet will be converted from diesel to electric. The remaining 37 Renault Zoe will be used for a range of community services.

Uber promises that by 2040 all trips booked via its ride-hailing platform worldwide will be made with electric vehicles or micro-mobility offers such as e-scooters or rental bicycles. In the USA, Canada and Europe, this goal is to be reached by 2030.

After the unsuccessful first attempt last year, Volkswagen’s US subsidiary Electrify America recently presented a new proposal for an eMobility emoji at this year’s World Emoji Day and submitted it to the Unicode Consortium.

Renault has announced that it will accept orders for the all-electric Twingo Z.E. in Europe from mid-August. The small electric car may even be available for order in Germany earlier than in its home market France.

The UK-based electric car subscription service Onto (formerly Evezy) has ordered 1,100 Renault Zoe. The first units were already delivered. A pilot project for electrification is also being launched in a small village in the Pyrenees.

Renault has launched a Zoe van, a cargo version of its best-selling electric car. The exterior appears mostly unchanged, but inside there’s now a flat load space in the back. The EV will join the firm’s fleet of commercial electric vehicles later this year.

The battery-electric compact SUV based on the new CMF-EV platform planned by Renault for 2021 could bear the model name Zandar. Renault is also planning further electric SUVs.

The Southampton City Council has taken delivery of 24 Renault Kangoo ZE vans, which will be used in the upkeep of the city and contribute to its goal of 90 per cent of its fleet to be zero-emission by 2030.

Groupe Renault has created a new subsidiary called Elexent to help other companies find solutions for charging their fleets of electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles. A branch office in France is already operational.

The English city of Leeds has taken delivery of 122 Renault Kangoo Z.E. electric vans. The city will use 102 in its services and will make the remaining 20 available to local companies as part of a new test programme called EV Trials Scheme.

Renault Spain has changed the pricing model for the Zoe. The small battery-electric car is now only available there with battery purchase, the previous option for battery rental is no longer available. The Spanish are thus following a decision by Renault Great Britain.

Renault UK is offering new car buyers money off its range of electrified models, with up to £1,000 to switch to an all-electric New Zoe, or £500 towards the deposit on All-New Clio Hybrid and All-New Captur Plug-in models.