The new Renault 4 and Renault 5 will be built at the firm’s ElectriCity factory hub in northern France as part of a huge push by the brand to make its homeland the heart of its EV activities.
The hub, encompassing Renault’s Douai, Maubeuge and Ruitz plants, will produce 400,000 electric vehicles per year. These include the 4 crossover, 5 supermini, the new Mégane E-Tech Electric, the next-generation Scenic and the successor to the Nissan Micra, which will be a twin to the 5.
Today’s combustion-powered Micra is built at the Renault Group’s facility in Flins, France.
Meanwhile, the upcoming Alpine GT X-Over crossover will be produced at the performance marque’s factory in Dieppe, Normandy, alongside the Alpine A110.
The historic Cléon plant, also in Normandy, will be responsible for building most of the brand’s electric powertrains: it currently produces the 215bhp motor used by the new Mégane and will also build the 134bhp version earmarked for the Renault 5 – and, from 2027, a new unit with twice that power and no rare metals in its construction.
Renault’s Le Mans plant will continue to oversee chassis production.
The ElectriCity initiative will play a key role in the firm’s ‘Re-Nouveau France 2025’ plans agreed with trade unions in December 2021.
Included in the arrangements are plans for domestic output of 700,000 vehicles annually – most of which will be electric – and the creation of 2500 new jobs.
A total of 980 people – comprising almost 40% of the final figure – have been recruited since the beginning of 2022. Of these, 700 were hired to support the factories’ transition to electric power.
The remaining 280 work in engineering, technology and services – some on the E-Lardy project converting the Parisien plant of the same name to electric power.
Renault plans to add another 700 factory staff to its ranks by the end of the year.
Staff training (and retraining) is also critical to the ‘Re-Nouveau’ agenda. Originally 10,000 people were targeted but this has since grown to “nearly 15,000”, according to an official statement.
In the short term, Renault will pay its staff an effective cost-of-living adjustment bonus totalling €1000 (£880) “for most employees”. This breaks down into a €500 (£440) payment plus a €100 (£88) transport allowance, free health insurance for three months and the ability to claim three days’ round-trip time (including commuting pay) at a 25% surcharge.
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