Renault readies itself to take on Chinese rivals
Luca de Meo is turning the carmaker around
卢卡·德·梅奥正在带领这家汽车制造商扭转局面。
2024年8月29日 04:50 上午 |巴黎
PARKED OUTSIDE the front doors of a handsome 1920s brick building in a Parisian suburb is a bright yellow Renault 5, a new electric vehicle (EV) unveiled by the French carmaker in February. It is permitted this enviable spot because it belongs to Luca de Meo, the boss of the company, whose top brass occupy the building. Mr de Meo has brought a renewed confidence to Renault since taking over as its chief executive four years ago. He has turned the business around—and readied it to take on the Chinese carmakers that are looking to expand in the European market.
在巴黎郊区一栋漂亮的20世纪20年代砖砌建筑的正门外停着一辆明黄色的雷诺5，这是法国汽车制造商今年2月推出的新款电动车。它能占据如此令人艳羡的位置，全因为它属于雷诺公司老板卢卡·德梅奥(Luca de Meo)，而他和其他高管们就办公在这栋大楼里。自从四年前接任雷诺首席执行官以来，德梅奥给了雷诺重新振作起来的信心。他扭转了公司颓势，并让其准备好迎接试图进军欧洲市场的中国汽车制造商。
When Mr de Meo took over at Renault in 2020 the situation was “bleak”, says David Lesne of UBS, a bank. It sold 2.9m cars that year, down from 3.7m in 2017, and made a net loss of €8bn ($8.7bn). Debts were ballooning. Wobbles in its alliance with Nissan, a Japanese carmaker, and an aborted attempt to merge with Fiat Chrysler, an Italian-American one, had left the firm in a parlous state.
德梅奥接管雷诺时，情况“十分糟糕”，据瑞银的大卫·莱斯内表示。那一年，雷诺销售了290万辆汽车，比2017年的370万辆下降，并且出现80亿欧元（约87亿美元）的净亏损。债务不断增加。与日本汽车制造商日产的联盟出现问题，而试图与意大利-美国汽车制造商菲亚特-克莱斯勒合并的尝试也失败了，导致公司处境堪忧。
Mr de Meo has since steered Renault through a brutal restructuring. He has ripped out costs and is cutting capacity from around 4m vehicles in 2019 to a target of 3.1m in 2025. Sales are down on his watch, to 2.2m vehicles last year, but profits are up. Last year Renault made a net profit of €2.3bn (see chart).
自那时以来，德梅奥一直在带领雷诺进行艰苦的重组。他削减了成本，将产能从2019年的约400万辆降至2025年的目标310万辆。在他任内，雷诺销量下滑至去年的220万辆，但利润却有所增加。去年，雷诺实现了23亿欧元的净利润（见图表）。
The company has been drawing lessons from Dacia, its Romania-based sub- brand that makes inexpensive vehicles with margins that far exceed those of premium German carmakers. Dacia’s cost-saving measures range from standardising engines and other parts to turning off the lights at stations on its production line that are manned only by robots.
公司一直在向它的罗马尼亚子品牌达契亚(Dacia)学习经验，这个品牌生产的便宜车利润远高于德国豪华汽车制造商。达契亚采取了一系列节约成本的措施，比如标准化发动机和其他零部件，还有关闭只由机器人操作的生产线上的灯光。
To improve focus, Mr de Meo has reorganised Renault into three parts: Ampere, an electric-vehicle and software division; Power, a legacy internal combustion engine (ICE) business; and Horse, which will continue to develop ICEs in partnership with Geely, a Chinese carmaker, and Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil giant. (A plan to spin off Ampere was dropped in January after growth began to slow in Europe’s EV market.)
为了更专注，德梅奥把雷诺分成三个部门：Ampere负责电动汽车和软件；Power主要是传统内燃机业务；Horse则继续与中国汽车制造商吉利和沙特阿拉伯国家石油巨头阿美公司合作开发内燃机。（原计划在一月份剥离Ampere的计划已经取消，因为欧洲电动汽车市场增长开始放缓。）
Unlike many of its rivals, Renault is willing to admit that it cannot do everything itself. Carmakers such as Volkswagen have kept software development mostly in-house, with disappointing results. Renault, by contrast, has formed partnerships with the likes of Google, a software giant, and Qualcomm, a chipmaker, which has kept costs down without ceding too much control to a third party.
和很多竞争对手不一样，雷诺愿意承认自己不能包办所有事情。比如，大众汽车一直把软件开发工作都留在公司内部，但结果并不尽人意。相反，雷诺选择与谷歌、高通等软件和芯片制造商合作，这样做既降低了成本又没有失去太多控制权给第三方。
Stephen Reitman of Bernstein, a broker, describes Renault as a card player that has not been dealt the strongest hand but is squeezing every point out of it. Its turnaround has positioned it well to take on the Chinese carmakers that are starting to export cheap EVs to Europe, despite its costlier French labour. When the Renault 5 goes on sale later this year it will have a starting price of €25,000, making it competitive with Chinese imports. The Twingo, a smaller EV Renault plans to release in 2025, will sell for under €20,000.
伯恩斯坦的经纪人史蒂芬·赖特曼形容雷诺就像一位打牌高手，虽然手里的牌不是最强的，但他们还是尽力挤出每一分优势。雷诺的转型使其处于一个良好位置，可以与开始向欧洲出口廉价电动汽车的中国汽车制造商竞争，尽管法国劳动力成本更高。今年晚些时候推出的雷诺5起售价为2.5万欧元，与中国进口汽车价格相当。而雷诺计划在2025年推出更小型电动汽车Twingo，并将售价定在2万欧元以下。
All this may explain why Mr de Meo seems unruffled by the threat from Chinese carmakers. They are “not unbeatable”, he says, adding that “it is not a time to panic.” The carmaker has partnered with a Chinese engineering company to develop the new Twingo. It hopes to replicate the dynamism of Chinese carmakers by slashing development times for new models. Tariffs on Chinese EVs imposed from July will buy carmakers such as Renault some time. It does not intend to waste it.
这可能解释了为什么德梅奥似乎对来自中国汽车制造商的威胁无动于衷。他表示，“他们并非不可战胜”，并补充称，“这不是恐慌的时候。” 该汽车制造商已与一家中国工程公司合作，开发新款Twingo车型。该公司希望通过缩短新车型开发时间来复制中国汽车制造商的活力。从7月开始对中国电动汽车征收的关税将为雷诺等汽车制造商赢得一些时间。而雷诺也打算好好利用这段时间。
Plenty could still go wrong for Renault. A plan for Horse to sell engines to other carmakers relies on it finding customers that are willing to give up on manufacturing their own ICEs. Few so far seem interested in doing so. Hopes of cutting manufacturing costs for Renault’s next generation of EVs by 40% will depend largely on batteries getting cheaper and more energy- dense. That, notes Mr Lesne of UBS, is in the hands of battery suppliers and mostly beyond the carmaker’s control.
雷诺还有很多事情可能出错。它计划让Horse向其他汽车制造商销售发动机，但这得找到愿意放弃自己生产内燃机的客户。目前为止，似乎很少有车企对此感兴趣。雷诺希望通过降低40%的制造成本来生产下一代电动汽车，但这主要取决于电池价格的下降和能量密度的提高。UBS的莱斯内(Lesne)指出，这主要取决于电池供应商，而车企几乎无法控制这个因素。
Another worry for the firm, and European carmakers more generally, is the European Union’s emission targets, which tighten considerably next year. To comply, around 16% of the cars Renault sells in Europe will have to be fully electric, by UBS’s calculations, up from nearly 12% in the first half of this year. Although the Renault 5 will boost that figure, it may not be enough to avoid fines. The firm could be forced to sell fewer ICE cars, which are more profitable, to meet the targets.
公司还有一个问题，欧洲汽车制造商也面临同样的困扰，就是明年欧盟的排放目标将大幅提高。根据瑞银的估算，为了达到这个要求，雷诺在欧洲销售的汽车中约有16%必须是纯电动汽车，而今年上半年这一比例接近12%。尽管雷诺5的推出会提高这个比例，但可能还不够避免罚款。公司可能被迫减少更赚钱的内燃机汽车销量来满足目标。
Mr de Meo notes that, for 125 years, Renault has “survived everything”. He deserves credit for successfully steering the French carmaker away from disaster. But his job is far from done.
德梅奥说，雷诺在这150年里已经“挺过了一切”。他成功地带领这家法国汽车制造商走出了困境。但是，他的任务还远未完成。
