Renault unveils new batteries that will reduce the price of its electric cars

Renault has just revealed its ambitious plan to reduce the price of electric car batteries by 20% by 2026. The recipe is already known by other manufacturers: it involves using cobalt-free LFP chemistry. But Renault is the first to succeed in using cell-to-pack technology with its pouch format cells. The consequence: improved autonomy.

We have been impatiently awaiting this announcement since the first rumors in the corridors during the announcement of the electric Renault 5 E-Tech at the start of 2024. Ampere, the 100% electric branch of the Renault group finally announces it in a press release from press: the Renault group will market electric cars equipped with cobalt-free LFP (lithium-iron-phosphate) batteries from 2026.

This is an important announcement for the future of electric cars in France since this chemistry is very different from the NMC (nickel-manganese-cobalt) usually used by Renault and most of its competitors. Without cobalt, LFP chemistry reduces production costs. On the other hand, it also has a major disadvantage: its energy density is lower.

The disadvantage of LFP batteries

Which means that for equivalent weight and size, it stores less energy than an NMC battery. But Renault tried to partly circumvent this problem thanks to its partner LG. The Korean giant has succeeded, for the first time, in producing an LFP battery in the format pouch (pocket in French) with technology cell-to-pack. The latter makes it possible to increase the energy density of cells. pouch.

Renault does not specify the energy density, but we imagine that it is nevertheless well below an NMC battery. But the good news is that LFP chemistry combined with technology cell-to-pack allows the manufacturing cost of batteries to be reduced by 20%. And we know that at Renault, the battery of the electric Mégane E-Tech can represent up to 40% of the price of the car.

A reduction of €3,000 for the customer

We can then estimate a price reduction of around 3,000 euros including tax for the customer on a Mégane and its 60 kWh battery for example. But be careful, because Renault does not specify it, but there is a chance that the large capacity batteries of the diamond brand’s electric cars will remain in NMC chemistry, which is more expensive.

An engineer had in fact told us that on the electric Renault 5 E-Tech, only the 40 kWh version could switch to LFP. The energy density of this cobalt-free chemistry would be too low to be able to replace the 52 kWh of the NMC battery of the long-range R5.

Another disappointment: these LFP cells will not be manufactured in France, unlike Renault’s NMC batteries, manufactured in Douai from 2025. In fact, the two chosen partners manufacture in Poland (for LG) and in Hungary (for CATL). If the cells will be manufactured outside France, the assembly of the battery pack will be done in France.

Let us also remember that Renault plans to reduce the production cost of an electric car by 40% from the next generation, scheduled for 2027. The future Renault Twingo should also integrate LFP batteries and offer a selling price under 20,000 euros from 2026.