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Renault's ambitious EV strategy relies on historic nameplates

PARIS — Renault unveiled a more ambitious strategy for electric vehicles (EVs) on Wednesday, betting on new, affordable versions of its iconic small cars of the past to catch up with Volkswagen in the fast-growing sector. The French carmaker's Chief Executive Luca de Meo said it would launch 10 new EVs by 2025 and that all-electric vehicles would account for up to 90% of its models by 2030, dropping its reliance on hybrids to hit the target under a previous plan. Renault is betting that an electric version of its classic Renault 5 compact car, which was discontinued in the 1990s, will capture the imagination of today's drivers when it goes on sale in the first half of 2024. At a live-streamed presentation on Wednesday, the company also offered a fleeting glimpse of its new electric "4ever." model. Two sources close to the company said it was a revival of the Renault 4 hatchback which went out of production last century. "Today is an historic acceleration of Renault Group's EV strategy," de Meo said in a statement. De Meo said that new, purpose-built electric car platforms and a cluster of production sites in northern France would allow Renault to deliver EVs at a lower cost. The first of its new EVs will be the MeganE hatchback which is due to go on sale in the first half of 2022. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. By 2030, Renault and its alliance partners, Nissan and Mitsubishi, will be producing 1 million EVs globally a year, up from the 200,000 they made in 2020, the French carmaker said. Tesla, the world's most valuable carmaker, is already close to hitting that target, with sales of between 840,000 and 1 million EVs projected for this year. Shrinking share Renault's Zoe model, the biggest-selling battery electric car in its segment in Europe for years, is losing ground to models such as Volkswagen's ID.3 compact electric car. Figures from database EV-Volumes.com showed Volkswagen's share of the EV market in Europe soared to 25% last year from 14% in 2019, overtaking the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance, whose share shrank to 19% from 23% in 2019. In the first quarter of 2021, Renault's share fell further to 15%, tying with Tesla for third place behind Volkswagen on 21% and Stellantis on 17%, EV-Volumes.com data showed.

Junkyard Gem: 2004 Mitsubishi Lancer Ralliart

I do manage to find the occasional discarded Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution during my Denver-area junkyard explorations, but such cars— like their Subaru WRX rivals— are always far too crashed and/or stripped to be worth documenting for this series. When it comes to the Mitsubishi Lancer O-Z Rally Edition, though, I get the impression that just about every Lancer sold here during the first part of the 2000s had that all-show-and-no-go package; after shooting several examples, I no longer pay attention to the O-Z Rally. The Ralliart Lancer, on the other hand, was a genuine factory hot-rod, with much more power and a stiffer suspension than the ordinary Lancer. We saw a used-up bright yellow '05 Ralliart last year, and now here's a black '04 in a different Denver yard. The Lancer Ralliart wasn't anywhere near as fast and crazy as its Evolution sibling, but (compared to the base Lancer) it came with more power, bigger brakes, stiffer suspension, better steering, and bucket seats sourced from the JDM Evolution GTA. List price was $18,572 (about $26,110 today), far cheaper than the $29,999 ($42,175 today) Evo VIII. The regular Lancer sedan had an unimpressive 120 horses from its 2.0-liter engine in 2004, while the Lancer Ralliart got this 162-horse MIVEC 2.4. Just in case you were wondering, MIVEC stands for Mitsubishi Innovative Valve-Timing-and-Lift Electronic Control, which doesn't sound as cool as VTEC, but at least seems more convincing than Daewoo's D-TEC. Nearly every O-Z Rally Lancer I see has an automatic transmission, but this Ralliart rolled out of the showroom with a genuine 5-speed manual and Evo shifter. The Japan-market front seats are a bit racier than the ordinary Lancer's, too. Though it is a Colorado car and drivers here think they need AWD to navigate a quarter-inch of snow in the supermarket parking lot, it lacks the all-wheel-drive system that went on the Evo. What more do you want for $18,572? I'm a bit surprised that some local Lancer owner didn't snag the factory strut-tower brace immediately, but I'll bet someone buys this part before the car gets crushed. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. So fast. So furious. 

Junkyard Gem: 1989 Mitsubishi Galant Sedan

The history of the Mitsubishi Galant in North America goes all the way back to the 1971 model year, when Chrysler imported the first-generation Galant and badged it as the Dodge Colt. Later in the 1970s, we got Galant coupes badged as Dodge Challengers and Plymouth Sapporos, and Mitsubishi began selling Galants (now with front-wheel-drive) with the company's own badging starting in the 1985 model year. The sixth-generation Galant arrived here for the 1989 model year, as a stylish and technology-packed competitor to the Taurus, Camry, and Accord, and it made a fair-sized splash in the automotive world. You'd have a tough time finding one of these cars today, but this '89 appeared in a self-service yard in Phoenix a couple of months back and I was there to document it. 159,385 miles is a respectable total for a 1980s car, and this one looks clean enough to indicate that it had conscientious owners for most of its 31-year life. Check out the dual analog trip counters, the sort of cool little feature Mitsubishi did so well during this era. One of this car's owners (probably its final owner) applied glue-on bling to many locations inside the car. A fairly typical Japanese sedan interior for the late 1980s and early 1990s, though a bit flashier than what Toyota and Honda were doing at the time. The base Galant sedan listed at $10,971 in 1989, versus $12,400 for a Ford Taurus L sedan, $12,105 for a base Chevrolet Celebrity sedan, $11,488 for a base Toyota Camry sedan, and $11,770 for a Honda Accord DX sedan. That was a good price for a competent and fuel-efficient sedan with a modicum of sportiness. Power came from a 2.0-liter 4G63 Sirius four-cylinder rated at 102 horsepower. This engine went into a list of vehicles longer than a Mitsubishi HIIB rocket, everything from the Eclipse to the Great Wall Coolbear, and you can buy a brand-new BAW BJ2022 Brave Warrior with 4G63 power to this day. Protected by the Nassau County PBA and Radio Shack. This car must have begun its career in New York, then moved to Arizona. Some Americans still bought midsize sedans with manual transmissions during this era, but their numbers were in steep decline (Ford stopped selling three-pedal Tauruses, other than the SHO after 1988). This car has an automatic, though I have found a bullet-riddled '91 Galant with a 5-speed during my junkyard travels. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.