So, this is a very exciting little opportunity. We've featured this car before. This is the Twingo. It's coming to the UK very early next year. This is a left-hand drive one. So, they still haven't made the right-hand drive ones. They're being produced at the moment, but they are on their way. I've not driven it before. I've seen it. I've sat in it at a car show. Imogen's driven it. Jack's had a look at it around in a studio. It's a fantastic little car. So, I'm really excited about getting a first drive today with the CEO of the Renault brand, Fabrice Cambolive, and we're going to have a little chat while we toot around the back streets of London. Not above 20 mph. You're not allowed to. So, it's and I like that because then I can concentrate on talking to him and asking questions and things. So, we're at the Shard, which is where Renault are based while they're launching the early stages of the Twingo. The Shard Hotel, you know, the big tall spiky building that's right there. So, that's the Shard. That's the Renault Twingo and this is Everything Electric Cars.
I'm so pleased. I remember being at a Renault event many years ago in the days of the Zoe and there was a Twingo on display, you know, I think probably a petrol one, and I said, "Why can't you bring those to England?" and someone said, oh, we, I don't know, you know, there was and that was quite I'm so glad that you've now finally this car is coming here because I think it's such a this is just a fantastic little car, just love it.
And look, I think you are comfortable also because you are not too low in the car. It's a kind of high drive position from typically small MPVs and that's that gives you a good stance, I would say.
Yeah, so I've just been at the Paris Motor Show, which was very interesting, I thought, and very I felt very a very strong presence of European cars there. I don't know why I feel that, but you know, there was it seemed to be like quite a I felt very positive about the European car industry, which I've been, you know, I've been very aware of what is happening with Chinese cars, China cars coming in. We're very aware of them in this country as well, you know, they've been popular here because I'm married to an Australian, I spent a lot of time in Australia, there's a lot of Chinese cars in Australia, you know, so you sort of become very aware of what's happening. But did you feel that, I mean, do you feel that there is a sort of a resurgence of enthusiasm in the French car?
First of all, I saw also European industry which is going to the BEV transition, electrification transition massively. And for instance, for me what was quite interesting is to see that some of our competitors, European competitors are for instance entering in the B SUV EV segment.
And we've been a little alone with our 4 as a pioneer.
But now we can see that some of the big groups in Europe are coming back with many different brands on this B SUV segment.
So that's a slightly smaller sort of SUV style but slightly smaller car.
Yeah, yeah. The kind of compact 4.1, 4.15 m, right, which should be also in Europe the next frontier to this BEV transition because B-H now is already changing. I think R5 disrupted the B-H EV market.
On the C-D you've got already a big offer, but on this particularly B SUV segment, I think the extension of the offer will all help us.
Yeah. Well, it is the thing that we and I think it's, you know, I understand that there's an enormous public passion for an SUV style of car, you know, in the last few years. I'm praying that it's starting to slow down, but I don't know if it is, but you know, it would be. But I feel these cars are so attractive, you know, that the Renault range is amazing, the Renault 4, 5, I passed my driving test in a Renault 4 a long time ago.
Now, I would say that with Twingo, R5, R4, we were able to make distinctive body types.
And of course to use our heritage, but to put our heritage on a very modern world.
I think it's not at all an exercise of nostalgia.
Nostalgia. No, I don't think.
Because look what is happening with the R5 here in UK. The huge success of R5 in UK is due also to young generation.
Yeah. They didn't remember the original R5.
Who doesn't have any link with the original R5.
And I think this is the beauty of the exercise. Coming back to the past is not the insurance of a success. And I don't want to talk about competitions, but even between our cars we are distinctive size of, I would say, dimension of success.
And for instance, we are always listening from what we did in the past and our point is to benefit from the advantage we have in terms of time to market versus most of our European competitors to still improve our models, for instance with better autonomy, better price, better connectivity, all the I would say continuous progress we are putting in our car, BEV car, even with over-the-air updates and so on, is allowing us for me to be at the forefront of the performance.
New battery, one pedal, extensive connectivity for R4. I want always to improve what I call the outdoorability. I want to do a car outdoorable, you know, it's a mix between outdoor and adorable.
And because it's part of our DNA to have cars with design to be loved.
Yes. Yes. Very much so. I mean, I think yeah, I think I must be I'll admit to being a bit of a Renault fanboy, but don't hold that against me. But because I do think as well, I've followed very closely the journey that Renault's been on since I guess around 2010 when I, you know, when things like the when the Zoe, I don't know when the Zoe was launched, but I was very...
Yeah. Was it? Was it? Right. Yeah. So that I mean that and that for me the two cars were the that made for me what that made the transition to electric vehicles possible in the very early days when everyone said no one wants them. They're rubbish. They won't work. They're no good. Was the Nissan Leaf and the Renault Zoe. Those two cars were built as electric cars. They weren't converted, you know, existing petrol cars. And I still own a Nissan Leaf so and it still goes and it's fine.
And you know, I'm sure you visited also the Renault stand. I was very proud because I didn't tell to my team to dispose the cars like they did. But it was very amazing to see that the cars have been located exactly on our two-leg strategy because you know we have this hybrid, dedicated hybrid covering the full ICE lineup and pure BEV cars on dedicated platform. And when you go into the Renault stand in the Paris Motor Show, when you enter in the stand on the left you have all our BEV lineup, on the right you have all our hybrids, and you see really people going either on the left or on the right depending on the fact that they can plug or not.
And frankly speaking, looking at Clio and Captur mirroring R5 and R4, I was very proud to see effectively on the field his strategy in terms of energy.
Yeah. But I mean are you finding now that your battery vehicles, your pure electric vehicles are selling well? I mean they are, I mean I don't know. Is there a percentage between hybrids, plug-in hybrids and pure?
We don't sell any plug-in hybrid.
Oh, they're not pluggable.
Otherwise, for me, I'm very proud of a number. If you take the B-H EV in Europe in 2024, first semester 2024, the full market of B-H EV in Europe first semester was 40,000 cars. Now you take the first semester of 2026, it's 140. It means the market gained 100%, out of which 50,000 are 5. It means we participated to the growth of this segment by 60% in the last two years.
And this is something because we did a car totally different from all the others. Of course with an emotional charge or emotional dimension from our past, but a car which is purely a modern car.
Yeah. Yeah.
And I mean from that point of view because I went around your amazing factory that's not far outside Paris which is that by I can't remember the name of the factory now.
Douai, where we are doing a VR5 or...
Yes, yes, and that was a few years ago but I mean that was incredible to see, you know, it's just when you as a consumer, as someone, I hate the word consumer, as a person who buys a car, you don't have a lot of idea of what has gone into making it until you go to a car factory and you go, "Oh my god, this is, you know, a huge step." It's such a commitment for a company to go, "Okay, we're going to start making, we've made petrol cars for 100 years. We're going to start making electric ones." It's a big shift, isn't it?
Yeah, it's a big shift. But for instance, I was last week in Sandouville. Sandouville is the plant where we will build our new purely new Trafic, right? And in the same plant now you have the ICE Trafic and the pure BEV Trafic which will be launched before the end of the year.
And because of the new Trafic, the plant has totally changed.
All the quality aspects are now digitalized.
You don't have anything, all the painting is made by robot, all the silence of the plant is huge now.
And of course the arrival of these pure BEV cars are putting you also in terms of fabrication in a new world.
Right. Yeah, no, and the change you saw in the way is radical.
But we are now duplicating this change in all our French factories because most of our production are based in France, based in Europe, and the change is amazing. Yes.
The transformation is amazing.
And that's I mean a very I'm impressed and intrigued that the R5 has done so well in that because I mean it's so obvious. You don't have to kind of look at figures. You just drive around England and you'll see you'll just see hundreds of them everywhere you look. So that's it's really caught people's attention and it is I think that's the shift I'm sensing is that even five years ago a person who bought an electric car was thinking about it in terms of whether they could use it and that it's electric and it's different and I'm not sure and it's a challenge whereas now I think people are buying a car because they like it, you know, I think that there's less anxiety.
But that was a bet, that was a bet also we made with R5 because you can't imagine the number of people who asked me, "But why don't you put an hybrid engine on R5? It will be a huge success" and so on.
At the same time the same people were asking me, "Why don't you do a Clio BEV? It will be a huge success." But at the end this idea to dedicate R5 to the shift to the pure BEV world was the right bet.
Yeah, I think you've proven that.
And you're right that people when they look at R5 they don't ask themselves is it electric and so on.
They just say I want to buy it.
Yes. Nice car. Yes. I want to buy it.
No. I mean that's a it is a you know I think we are witnessing a shift and it is a different I mean I'm intrigued to know how you would do that that you know a change the way you market cars or you promote them or whatever because I did that I've just remembered I attended a wonderful Renault dealership event in the UK probably 10 years ago to talk to the dealers so they're all British companies to talk to them about understanding that electric cars aren't the end of the world for them and it's not you know this was in the early days of the Zoe and it was a really difficult I did a talk it was not easy.
Yeah, especially here in UK where the price of electricity is quite high.
But I mean how much that shifted now so I think if you went in a Renault showroom now that they would be very enthusiastic about the 4 and the 5 and the...
No, we had a meeting yesterday with our dealers. Yes. They believe in our franchise and in our capacity to propose products which are different from all our competitors in terms of personality, emotion, but at the same time we need the same tech level and competitiveness as the Chinese. It means our job is really to have this dual view: a very emotional aspect but at the same time modern, but at the same time this capacity to be very cost offensive because we need this affordability.
And frankly speaking what we are doing in terms of battery for R5, R4, introducing now new LFP technology.
Because that's what this is LFP, isn't it?
This is LFP, but we will have also a slightly higher LFP battery on R5, R4.
37 kW just in order to promote more accessibility prices.
With the right level of autonomy, it means above 300, 300 kilometers.
Right. Yeah. Because that's the I mean the thing that I've witnessed over the last 10 years in particular is you know the constant dropping of the wholesale price of batteries and I've sort of been waiting for that to be reflected in the price of cars and it felt like there was it wasn't being until recently and now it feels like you can make a car like this make a profit making it but it's still a lot cheaper than it would have been 10 years ago.
Okay, this car will be below £20,000.
Yeah. Which is which is fantastic. I mean...
And of course Renault with his local European local content is aiming to have the best grants here in UK. And that's a very good point.
Right. Let's just say this. It's quite stressful driving in this area of London anyway. And we're talking and I'm thinking of questions and I'm not even worried about the driving. It's so good. It's an easy drive, easy car to drive and I am being extra vigilant of for instance pedestrians about to walk in front of me, other traffic, other road users, electric delivery vehicles, you know, it's quite difficult to do but the car makes it so easy.
Now I mean we put in this car frankly speaking the best level of connectivity from the C segment. You are here everywhere where Google, Google Maps, open our link, Google Maps, very very fluid.
Nice size screen as well, very...
You could even pair your iPhone, it will work easily.
And Jim, what is your size? Jim, is your...
I am 6'4 or 190 something cm, not a short man, and without any problem on the second row.
