Renault client would escape that bottom trend

Bookmakers tired on the Arsenal - Chelsea football Derby should focus closely on the match between Renault and PSA on own cars. Which of the two will eventually Trump It is still a little early to tell, but in any case, the two French manufacturers have chosen radically different roads for "green" their lines in the years to come. The more daring of the two is Renault, who mobilized on merits, since almost two years, around the electric car. With its partner Nissan, and in competition with the small one Chinese BYD at this stage, the diamond group wants to impose its standard of "zero emission" vehicles, first for service to polluted downtowns. "What is at stake, it is not to reduce CO2 by 20, is no longer emit CO2 at all", insists its CEO, Carlos Ghosn. Ignoring numerous uncertainty around these programs, starting with the deployment of recharge stations and very limited vehicle autonomy, he imagines already the electrical should represent at least 10 of the global automotive sales by 2020. Implication: that from the first will be a decisive advantage over the competition.

After much relocated its production of "classic" to countries low-cost cars, the constructor uses also this new vector image, it being understood that the factory of Flins (Yvelines), who lost the manufacture of the Twingo and much of the Clio will be responsible for developing new vehicles "to know" and make their batteries.

The approach is much more cautious in the Peugeot-Citroen clan, who prefers, as most of the major manufacturers, not close any door. "The automotive industry is truly taking a turn" should be its CEO, Philippe Varin. "Electric urban mobility will certainly generate new concepts." But one thing is certain, it will put all our eggs in the same electric cart. "The cars are connected to taking 220 volts represent 5 or 10 of sales in the future "Today, nobody knows anything", he notes. And studies of consultants that rich on the subject do not help to see more clear: their findings are often diametrically opposed. Imbued franc-comtoise wisdom, PSA is therefore working in parallel on three different axes: the improvement of thermal traditional engines, to pass several models under the bar symbolic of the 100 grams of CO per kilometre, the hybrid engines (which combine in his case a Diesel engine and an electric group), and the car 100 electric, for the time being purchased at Mitsubishi to limit costs. Between the end of 2010 and 2013, these last two solutions will begin to emerge. For the electrical charging system, PSA is not pressed to choose a partner and is still six months of reflection, even if it will seek, with its next small car zero emission, delivered late 2010 Peugeot and Citroën, to bypass the trade offensive by Renault in 2011.

This strategy is fairly close to that followed by Volkswagen. The new number three global automotive wishes to retain all the options. For the moment, the group account much more on its new Polo Blue Motion, which consumes only 3.3 litres of fuel to the 100 kilometres (87 grams of CO), on the 100 electric pledged for 2013 models. Term, the German group is difficult how these rechargeable cars could represent more of... 1.5 of the world market. In addition, German, many observers are not fooled by the sirens of the "zero emission" and the lack of tailpipe on these futuristic models. They wonder if it is reasonable to rely on the electricity produced by... of coal-fired power generation. A topic which also facing the vast Chinese market, already very aware of electric scooters.

Renault to beau focus its communication on the subject, supported in this by the French Government, the brakes to the electric sector are very real. The first of them is in the head car customer who need it, one day or another, announce rates and costs of is accurate. Today, purchases of cars "semi-écolos" are primarily driven by reasons of budget and hunting for discount. The environmental test emerged last year from the list of the ten main reasons for purchasing a car, to alarm the CEO of Volvo, Stephen Odell. For him, this is not the "green" (green) that takes the market but the "greed" (greed). Renault client would escape that bottom trend