It is now official: the world’s leading oil producer, Saudi Aramco, is preparing to take a stake in Renault’s future subsidiary dedicated to gasoline and hybrid engines. This company, provisionally called Horse in the transformation plan of the diamond brand, should therefore have three shareholders: the French manufacturer, the Chinese group Geely and the Saudi giant, the world’s second largest market capitalization behind Apple with 1,900 billion dollars (1 790 billion euros). The information, revealed by The world the 1is September 2022, was confirmed by a joint press release from the three companies on Thursday March 2.
The new entity will bring together the historical engine activities of the manufacturer from Boulogne-Billancourt (Hauts-de-Seine), but also Aurobay, Geely’s joint venture with its Swedish subsidiary Volvo. The future society “will have a total production capacity of more than 5 million internal combustion, hybrid and plug-in hybrid transmissions and engines”, said the three companies. It will bring together seventeen factories: those of Renault in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Turkey, Romania, Spain and Portugal, those of Aurobay in Sweden, and seven Geely production sites in China.
Under the leadership of its managing director, Luca de Meo, Renault has decided to separate its thermal engines and its electric cars into two very distinct subsidiaries. The group will retain control of the electric business, with participation from Nissan-Mitsubishi, but will share that of Horse. For now, the price paid and the proportion of capital held by Aramco in Horse are not specified, but its stake might be around 20%. Renault and Geely would each have 40% and remain “in equal parts” in this company, specifies the press release.
” Research and development “
Aramco’s investment will be “used to support the growth of the company”, specify the three partners: because if Europe has chosen a fairly short timetable – by 2035 – to ban the sale of cars emitting CO2, they will continue to represent more than half of the world market in 2040, it is estimated at Renault. Aramco wants “contribute to research and development, particularly with regard to synthetic fuel solutions and future generation hydrogen engines”. Luca de Meo hopes to acquire “a head start in the race for ultra-low emission thermal technology”.
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