The Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance will bring to market 35 new electric cars by the end of the decade, outnumbering Toyota’s pledge of 30 vehicles in the same time.
Though there are only a handful of current models across the Alliance brands that are tailpipe emissions free, the French-Japanese conglomerate has worked out a path forward where most of these new electric vehicles will be built using just five common platforms.
These platforms are the CMF-AEV, KEI-EV, LCV-EV, CMF-EV and CMF-BEV – each a different size and segment of the market.
The CMF-AEV architecture will support light vehicles, and could be positioned for emerging markets as it is based on the underpinnings of the Chinese-market Dacia Spring and Renault City K-ZE. The Alliance calls this “the most affordable platform in the world”.
The KEI-EV platform is designed for “mini vehicles” according to the Alliance, with the ‘kei’ in its name likely alluding to the tiny kei class of vehicles popular in Japan.
Likewise, the LCV-EV platform gives away its intentions in the name, with this architecture to be used for commercial vans like the Renault Kangoo and Nissan Townstar.
It is currently unclear if there is scope within the platform to expand to larger vehicles like the Renault Trafic and Master, or utes and pick-ups like the Nissan Navara and Titan, and Mitsubishi Triton.
The CMF-EV platform has actually already been utilised by Nissan and Renault for the Ariya and Megane E-Tech Electric, but the architecture will now proliferate across at least another 13 models by the end of the decade with the aim of producing 1.5 million CMF-EV vehicles annually.
Finally, the CMF-BEV platform looks to be designed for global light vehicles, and will underpin Renault, Alpine and Nissan vehicles, the first of which will be the R5 from the French brand and a Micra replacement from the Japanese marque.
Of note, the Micra-succeeding model will be produced by Renault, and could share the same production line as the R5.
The Alliance is targeting a 400km range for CMF-BEV vehicles.
To achieve its goals, the Alliance will sink €23 billion ($A36.43 billion) over the next five years into preparations for the new models.
And part of this ramp up will include reducing battery costs due through economies of scale, but whether this will lower the cost of Alliance EVs in the future is still unclear.
But will these EVs come to Australia?
It is still too early to tell which, if any, models, will make it Down Under, but with the entire industry shifting towards EVs, it is highly likely more than a few of the new models will be offered.
Keyword: Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance trumps Toyota! 35 new electric cars coming by 2030, including Nissan Micra successor