MILAN, Jul 10 (Class Editori) -- Renault is accelerating its move towards electric vehicles in collaboration with Chinese partners. Ampere, the business unit dedicated to full electric vehicles of the French manufacturer, has announced the creation of a strategic fund in partnership with some of the most significant Chinese investors: Cicc Private Equity Investment Management, Hangzhou Capital, and Hangzhou Hi-Tech Investment Holding Group. The new investment vehicle will be based in Hangzhou, one of the most active cities in China for industrial innovation.
This operation marks a key step in Renault's strategy regarding electric vehicles and new forms of mobility: it is not a traditional production joint venture, but rather an industrial and financial fund that will channel resources into critical sectors for the future of mobility. This includes next-generation batteries, autonomous driving systems, digital cockpits, automotive software, and "embodied" artificial intelligence, meaning integrated directly into vehicles.
This is the first time Renault has directly collaborated with Chinese private equity funds and local industrial capital. This is a significant shift, considering that the French group has so far had a limited presence in the Chinese automotive market. However, as China is now the global laboratory for electric vehicles, Renault can now access the Chinese technological ecosystem through Ampere, while minimizing exposure to industrial risks and direct costs.
Through this structure, Ampere will be able to invest in startups and emerging technologies without rigid constraints, aiming for a more flexible, horizontal, and open model. The fund thus serves as a financial and strategic bridge between East and West, designed to shorten the distance between the speed of Asian innovation and the needs of the European market.
The new fund represents the natural evolution of a path that Renault began in 2024, with the establishment of the Advanced China Development Center (Acdc) in Shanghai, a research center created to develop EV technologies for export to the European market. The direction is clear: learn from China but produce in Europe, leveraging economies of scale, synergies in the value chain, and international know-how.
As Weiming Soh, president and CEO of Renault China, emphasized, "this fund is not just an investment, but an infrastructure to fuel a shared innovation ecosystem that transcends the traditional OEM-supplier model." The group aims to create an international collaboration network that can support the entire electric cycle, from design to production.
The timing of the announcement is far from coincidental. The agreement with Chinese partners comes just days before Luca de Meo's departure from the operational leadership of the Renault group, scheduled for July 15. The Italian manager, now heading to the luxury holding Kering, leaves a clear and consistent mark: a Renault increasingly focused on electrification, enhancing brands (such as Alpine and Dacia), and seeking global strategic alliances. The signing of the agreement with Beijing thus seems more like a strategic legacy than a last-minute move.
In the medium term, the Sino-French fund could represent a crucial lever to reduce the development costs of future generations of electric vehicles and to bridge the gap with Asian giants, who are currently leaders in both technology and industrial scale. The goal is ambitious: to build a flexible and unconventional cooperation model capable of overcoming the rigidities of traditional production alliances. (All rights reserved)
(Source: Class Editori)
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