Renault plans to buck an industry trend toward flexible manufacturing as part of its strategy to double the number of small cars it offers globally.
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According to Automotive News Europe, carmakers such as Ford, Opel and PSA/Peugeot-Citroen have shifted toward flexible plants that can produce multiple products to match shifts in demand. But Renault is reorganising its small-car production on the principle of “one plant for one vehicle,” says a top Renault official.
Renault’s Twingo and Clio will be joined by a compact minivan, code-named J-77, and the X-90, the so-called €5,000 car for developing countries.
Although described as a medium-size family car, the X90 is being built on the small-car platform Renault shares with the Nissan Micra.
“The doubling in the number of small car models highlights how that segment is vital to us,” said Pierre-Alain de Smedt, Renault’s engineering and manufacturing chief. “We know that these kinds of products represent enough volume to fully utilise a plant.”
Nigel Griffiths, a director at London-based consultancy firm Global Insight, questions the manoeuvre.
“On the face of it, it’s quite a risky strategy,” Griffiths said. “What will happen when the model is aging and the level of production ebbs away with demand?”
Renault’s plant allocation policy for small cars stands in contrast with PSA/Peugeot-Citroen’s practices. PSA produces several small cars in the same plant – for instance it produces the Citroen C2 and C3 at Aulnay near Paris, which has a capacity of nearly 400,000 cars a year.
