The Renault brand, which once withdrew from the joint venture Dongfeng Renault, is now ready to change its identity and try to force the Chinese market twice.
Recently, the two sides confirmed that Geely Holding Group will become a strategic partner of Renault Samsung Automobile and will cooperate with South Korea in the future.
In the past, Chinese and foreign car companies carried out joint ventures, and the technology platform was mostly provided by foreign companies, but in this cooperation, Geely became the party that provided technology, and Renault was only responsible for "listing".
It is reported that Geely will authorize Renault to use the CMA modular architecture and hybrid powertrain technology Raytheon Hybrid, and the two sides will launch hybrid models in the Korean market.
The cooperation between Renault and Geely is also aiming at this development opportunity by sharing resources and technologies, with China and South Korea as the key markets.
At the beginning of the cooperation, the two sides will tailor new models for the Korean market, put into production around 2024, or sell them at Samsung in South Korea, and will also consider exporting to other overseas markets in the future, with the first stop being North America.
Renault has established a number of joint ventures in China, such as Dongfeng Renault, Jiangling Renault, Renault Brilliance, and EasyJet, in an attempt to open up the Chinese market.
Now, Dongfeng Renault no longer exists, Jiangling Renault and Brilliance Renault seem to be "really dead", and EasyJet has become a foundry of Renault's European sub-brand Daua.
The Renault brand has not developed smoothly in China in the past few years, and none of the joint ventures in China have been successful, and a lot of money has been wasted in recent years.
Luca de Meo, CEO of Renault Group, admitted in an interview with foreign media last week: "Renault's entire strategy in China is wrong. ”
He also said, "It's not Nissan's fault, they're still the leaders of the Chinese market, but they can't save us." ”
Renault chose to cooperate with Geely, and its real purpose is to return to the Chinese market through Geely's new partner.
According to people familiar with the matter, Renault did not let Nissan participate in cooperation with Geely. In the eyes of foreign media, the alliance relationship between Renault and Nissan has been very fragile.
In the geely passenger car territory, although there are many brands, there is still a relatively large gap between it and several leading car enterprise groups in Europe, the United States, Japan and South Korea in the fields of global sales, revenue scale, car platform architecture, and power system layout.
Over the years, domestic car companies have repeatedly clamored to enter the US market, but subject to various factors, so far there is still no Chinese car company that can make its own passenger cars really enter the American family.
At present, Geely in a number of independent brands, whether it is products, technology, or market, capital, it can be said that it has a very strong head strength, for the heavy responsibility of breaking the deadlock, Geely seems to want to do it.
Therefore, Geely's choice to cooperate with Renault is obviously not only to value the Korean market, but also to borrow the power of Renault and use the Korean market as a springboard to successfully break into the huge US market and eventually go international.
A few more words
In the Chinese auto market, I have seen many foreign brands come and see many foreign brands go. However, it is really rare for Renault to "come and go, go and come" to come and go.
In fact, as early as last August, Geely and Renault signed a memorandum of understanding announcing an innovative partnership. After 5 months, the progress of cooperation between the two sides has once again been promoted.
Even if the CMA architecture has received feedback from the market, it remains to be seen whether Renault can ultimately reap the same effect, and whether Geely and the CMA architecture can stand for Renault's return.