First birthday: Ampere draws a successful interim balance sheet

Twelve months after its creation, the Renault Group’s electric division, Ampere, reports on the main progress made so far. Despite the recent slowdown in the electric vehicle market, it has succeeded in catching up with the leading EV suppliers and at the same time closing the gap with its competitors in Europe. Ampere intends to take advantage of the expected 25 per cent annual growth in the EV market over the next five years.

ElectriCity: Ampere has founded ElectriCity in northern France – an EV production centre that serves markets in and outside Europe. ElectriCity utilises an entire ecosystem to produce electric vehicles competitively: The Megane E-Tech Electric, the Scenic E-Tech Electric, the Renault 5 E-Tech Electric (Renault 5 E-Tech 100% electric 150 Comfort Range (52 kWh battery) and the Renault 4 E-Tech Electric are produced here. ElectriCity comprises the Douai, Maubeuge and Ruitz plants and works closely with the Cléon site, where the e-drives are manufactured. The production time for the Renault 5 is thus reduced to less than 10 hours. The next all-electric model, the Twingo, which was announced a year ago, is already in the starting blocks. The vehicle is due to be launched in 2026 – developed in less than two years and at a sales price of less than 20,000 euros.

Technology platform for major brands: Following an initial successful technical collaboration on the upcoming compact EV, Nissan has asked Ampere to help develop its next A-segment electric car. This vehicle would benefit from newly introduced breakthrough processes, Ampere’s cost reduction strategy and reduced development time. This new co-operation opportunity underlines Ampere’s position as a technology platform for major brands. These include the Alpine A390 on the AmpR Medium platform as well as the A290 based on the AmpR Small platform and manufactured in Douai; Nissan with its compact electric car developed by Ampere and manufactured from 2025, as well as the potential A-segment electric car; and Mitsubishi with its electric C-segment SUV developed on the AmpR Medium platform and produced in Douai from 2025.

With cobalt-free batteries by 2028: Ampere has also succeeded in integrating lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery technology together with nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) technology into its vehicles within 18 months. Ampere is preparing the next technological leap by 2028 with cobalt-free batteries. These combine the energy density of NMC batteries with the cost and safety of LFP technology and offer charging times of less than 15 minutes. Ampere also provides an outlook on the goal of doubling the energy density of NMC in a structural solid-state battery by around 2030 by using a cobalt-free cathode and a Li-metal anode.

Software Defined Vehicle: In 2026, Ampere will offer the first European SDV (Software Defined Vehicle) based on the FlexEVan platform. The horizontal development approach that underpins this platform and enables a reduction in costs plays a key role for software development with Google and Qualcomm, but also for battery development with four partners in Europe and for power electronics.

Cost reduction of 40 per cent: Thanks to the combination of these advances from the past year, Ampere is well on the way to achieving its self-imposed target of reducing costs by 40 per cent between the first and second generation of electric vehicles for the C-segment planned for 2028. LFP and new technologies such as cell-to-pack in particular are contributing to this. The next generation of electric cars for the C-segment will offer new efficiency records – thanks to a breakthrough in energy integration, thermal management and the incorporation of other new technologies such as third-generation motors without rare earths. With these vehicles, Ampere aims to catch up two generations in one step and catch up with the competition.

Ampere is also working towards the goal of net-zero mobility, which goes beyond the operation of the vehicles. The Renault Emblème concept car brings together cutting-edge technologies from the main sectors that contribute to the decarbonisation of mobility.