Renault Group is canceling a planned IPO for its Ampere electric vehicle unit, saying that “current market conditions are not met” to allow a public listing.
CEO Luca de Meo said in a news release Monday after the close of trading that the cancellation of the IPO would have no impact on the automaker’s EV and software strategy, as well as financial guidance and capital allocation strategy.
Renault said it would continue to fund Ampere until it reaches break-even in 2025. The unit includes all of Renault’s EV activities, including a group of factories in northern France, and about 11,000 employees, including engineers.
Renault set out financial targets for the unit in November, including more than 10 billion euros of revenue by 2025, reaching breakeven in 2025, revenues of 25 billion euros in 2031, and an operating margin of at least 10 percent starting in 2030.
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Renault sets out target for Ampere EV unit; will launch low-cost electric car Renault aims to pick partner for Twingo by early 2024, with VW in the running, report says Ampere, which started operating separately from its parent on Nov. 1, was expected to have revenues of about 2.8 billion euros this year, Renault said. Ampere targets sales of 300,000 EVs in 2025, up from 45,000 in 2023. Sales should rise to 1 million cars in 2031.
The IPO was to have taken place in the first half of this year, after first proposed for the end of 2023.
EV-focused spinoffs and startups, hoping to duplicate the success of Tesla, have had mixed success in the public markets. Just last week, Geely’s Polestar unit, which went public in 2022 in the U.S., said it would cut 450 jobs, and it has been tapping its backers for funding as its share price remained in the doldrums.
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Ampere plans a lineup of seven EVs by 2031, including a city car costing less than 20,000 euros ($22,000) to replace the current Renault Twingo.
Renault says the unit will be profitable because it can reach price parity to an internal-combustion engine car faster than other EV makers, because it fuses the agility of a startup with the legacy automaker’s experience in development and production, as well as scale.
It plans to reduce EV development and production costs by 40 percent in a single model generation. That will allow Renault to cut prices to consumers.
Ampere will build EVs for Renault, Alpine, Dacia and Nissan, and it has been in talks with Volkswagen to develop and produce a low-cost EV for the German automakers.
La comunità degli analisti era sempre stata freddissima sulla decisione strategica di Renault di quotare la divisione Ampere. Ci vorranno ancora anni per ottenere i primi profitti e gli sbarchi in borsa di Polestar e altre case automobilistiche focalizzate sulle BEV sono stati dei mega flop. È un brutto colpo per De Meo che contava su miliardi di incasso dato che la Regie è abbastanza a corto di liquidità.
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