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On October 5, Renault officially released the latest preview of the Renault 4 concept model. According to the previous plan, the new car may make its global debut at the Paris Motor Show on October 17.

The new car is based on CMF-BEV pure electric platform and focuses on pure electric small SUV models. The appearance of the use of retro design style, with a strong sense of fashion, from the latest notice map, the new car front face on both sides of the LED light source, the middle is the brand logo logo, the overall recognition is high. On the side of the body, the new car is built with strong body lines. In terms of vehicle models, it is expected that the new car will launch hatchback models in the early stage, followed by freight models.

The new car is based on the CMF-BEV pure electric platform jointly built by Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi, which is specially used for the production of pure electric vehicles and is expected to adopt a series of new technologies that meet the current needs of pure electric vehicles. In terms of power, the new car is expected to provide peak power of 134hp and a range of about 400km. At present, the information about the new car is very limited, and we will continue to pay attention.

It is understood that Renault 4 is one of the 10 pure electric models that Renault plans to launch in 2025. In addition to Renault 4, Renault will also launch a compact Megane E-Tech, a Renault 5 in early 2024, and a compact SUV, medium-sized SUV and two Alpine sports cars expected to be called Scenic. Luca de Mayo, Renault's chief executive, said earlier that every new model launched by Renault in the European market by 2023 would be pure electric.

Public data show that Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi are established car companies in France and Japan respectively, and the three parties have formed an alliance for many years. The Renault-Nissan alliance was formed in 1999. In May 1999, Renault bought a 36.8 per cent stake in Nissan for $5.4 billion and was granted the right to increase its stake to 44.4 per cent five years later. Nissan acquired a 15 per cent stake in Renault in May 2002. In 2016, Nissan acquired a 34% stake in Mitsubishi Motors, and Mitsubishi Group has since become a member of the Renault-Nissan alliance, which formed the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance.

In the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi relationship, Renault is the majority shareholder of Nissan, Nissan is the majority shareholder of Mitsubishi, and Nissan CEO Ghosn is the soul of the alliance. Under his leadership, the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance became the world's largest manufacturer with a total sales of 10.61 million vehicles in 2017, but in less than two years, the relationship between the three appeared a rift. In November 2018, Nissan CEO Ghosn was arrested on suspicion of financial irregularities, and the alliance began to deteriorate. Before Mr Ghosn's accident, Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance sales of 5.538 million vehicles in the first half of 2018, the world's largest carmaker, fell 5.6 per cent to 10.1552 million in 2019 after Mr Ghosn's arrest.

On May 27, 2020, Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi jointly issued a number of strategic initiatives, including in the area of technology research and development: self-driving will be led by Nissan; in terms of vehicle networking technology, Renault Group will lead the development of vehicle networking technology based on Android platform. Nissan will lead the development of car networking technology in China; the core systems of electric body and electronic and electrical architecture are also led by Renault Group. For electric powertrain (e-POWER), Renault Group is responsible for CMF-A/B electric powertrain, Nissan is responsible for CMF-EV electric powertrain, and Mitsubishi Motors is responsible for C-class and D-class plug-in hybrid vehicles. At the same time, according to the guiding strategy, the three parties will focus on the market respectively to avoid repetition. Nissan will focus on China, North America and Japan, Renault Group will focus on Europe, Russia, South America and North Africa, and Mitsubishi Motors will focus on Southeast Asia and Oceania.

At the beginning of this year, the media revealed that Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors will further form an alliance and plan to invest more than 20 billion euros (143.8 billion yuan) in the development of electric vehicles in the next five years. By 2030, the alliance will launch more than 30 new electric vehicle models built by five common platforms. In February, Renault said it planned to split electric and internal combustion engine models into separate divisions, and in April, Thierry Pi é ton, Renault's chief financial officer, said in an earnings report: "one option under consideration is to bring the electric vehicle business to market in the second half of 2023." According to the Nikkei News on Sept. 27, President and CEO of Nissan said that the future development of the company will be based on the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance, and does not intend to establish a partnership outside this. Mr Uchida pointed out that the electric car company Renault envisioned was part of a consortium and that "we must consider its benefits to Nissan" before participating.

The latest figures show that Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance sales totaled 3.14 million vehicles from January to June 2022, down 17.3 per cent from a year earlier.

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