French automaker Renault, through its upcoming electric vehicle unit Ampere, announced that the company would soon use a “software-defined vehicle” architecture like Tesla.
Reuters reported that the technology will be co-developed by Alphabet Inc’s Google and Qualcomm Inc.
Why is it necessary?
Like most electric automakers, Renault has spent months dreading regular and significant price cuts from American EV giant Tesla. The list price of the Tesla Model 3 in France now starts at roughly €42,000 (US$46,318), the same as the electric Renault Mégane.
Renault CEO Luca de Meo admitted that Tesla stays a “challenge in the short term.” Nonetheless, he firmly insisted that the automaker will not join the currently ongoing price war. He even stated recently that Tesla’s pricing strategy could undermine consumer trust in the worth of their electric vehicles.
“We don’t want to do what we did in the past, we want to sell our cars, we don’t want to give away our cars.”
Gilles Le Borgne, Renault’s head of engineering, told journalists and analysts at the same event
The new architecture will drastically decrease complexity by only utilizing 20 processors on board to power a car. Indeed, that indicates a significant difference from the present requirement of 100.
Additionally, this will make it possible to update software remotely without modifying the hardware.
“This is similar with Tesla, in 2026 they are going to have the same approach, they have the same EV architecture approach.
In 2026, we will be at the level of Tesla” in software-defined vehicles.”
Frédéric Vincent, Renault’s chief digital officer
Furthermore, the architecture should raise the resale value of the vehicles by enabling ongoing improvements to the driving and infotainment systems. Additionally, it will strengthen the company’s pricing power and save €1.5 billion in research and development (R&D) costs over a ten-year period.
Le Borgne stated that the overall cost balance should remain neutral even with the investment needed for the new design and the cost of the more expensive processors installed.
See Also:
- Renault to officially launch the Megane E-Tech in Australia in 2023
- “This is destroying value for the customer,” Renault CEO says of Tesla’s pricing strategy
- Nissan to invest 15% in Renault’s Ampere under their restructured partnership
- Nissan and Renaults reworking on partnership deal
- Renault becomes the first brand to integrate Waze into its multimedia system
Renault’s new architecture will be introduced in mid-2026, starting with the “Flexevan” electric van program for last-mile delivery. The sporty Alpine brand and all Renault-branded vehicles will follow it, correspondingly.
