Renault to launch new Slovenia-made electric city car - sources

By Gilles Guillaume

PARIS (Reuters) - Renault will reveal the launch of an additional "affordable" city electric car during this week's capital markets day for its new EV unit Ampere, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The move is part of French carmaker's efforts to reassure investors and push ahead with the stock market listing of its EV business, which has been complicated by weak demand for EVs and increased Chinese competition.

The Renault-branded vehicle, which will be even smaller than the planned re-launched version of Renault's cult hatchback R5, is expected to be produced at the firm's Novo Mesto plant in Slovenia, two of the sources said.

Ampere, whose separation from the rest of Renault and planned market listing next spring is a major plank of the carmaker's turnaround strategy, has said it plans to bring six EV models to the market by 2030.

The new model is scheduled to hit the market in 2026, one of the sources said.

Ampere targets 600,000 produced electric vehicles in 2026 and one million in 2031. The company sold just under 50,000 electric Megane and Kangoo vehicles, its current models, last year. It flagged the arrival of electrified Scenic and R5 models for 2024, followed by the R4, in 2025.

Having pioneered the market for first-generation electric vehicles with its long-time ally Nissan in the early 2010s, Renault has recently fallen behind pure players like Tesla and Asian manufacturers as global competition for greener vehicles has picked up.

The firm's investor day will be held on Wednesday.

(Reporting by Gilles Guillaume, writing by Tassilo Hummel, editing by Silvia Aloisi)