Following the letter of intent signed last year, Renault and Bolloré, the owner of several electric car-sharing schemes, have announced three agreements aimed at promoting EVs.
The agreements include Renault assembling Bluecar electric vehicles for the Bolloré Group at its plant in Dieppe from second half 2015, the founding of a joint-venture to sell complete electric car-sharing solutions in France and in Europe, and a feasibility survey on design, development and production by Renault of a new urban electric vehicle with a 20 kWh lithium metal polymer (LMP) battery.
Renault will gradually take over assembly of the Bluecar, formerly built solely in Italy by Pininfarina. The EVs will be assembled at the Renault plant in Dieppe which specializes in building vehicles in small series. The plant currently builds the Clio RS and is set to build the future Alpine sports car, scheduled for 2016.
As for the joint-venture between Renault and Bolloré, its aim is to win and install complete electric car-sharing solutions in France and Europe. The Renault group will hold a 30 percent interest in the joint-venture, while the Bolloré group will own 70 percent. As part of this agreement, Renault will introduce the Twizy in Bolloré’s car-sharing networks in Lyon (Bluely) and Bordeaux (Bluecub) from the second-half of 2014. Furthermore, Renault vehicles will be gradually integrated with the car-sharing fleet to reach a proportion of 30 percent as quickly as possible.
Finally, Bolloré has asked Renault to conduct a feasibility survey on the design, development and production in a Renault group plant in France of a smaller car than the existing Bluecar, with three seats instead of four. The car should be able to support the expansion of car-sharing initiatives and could also be sold to consumers, companies and municipalities. The EV will feature a Blue Solutions lithium-metal-polymer (LMP) battery with a capacity of 20 kWh.
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