French automaker Renault just canceled its planned IPO for its EV spinoff Ampere. While the IPO was scheduled for the first part of this year with an expected valuation of up to €10 billion ($10.47 billion), Renault says that market conditions aren’t optimal to make the move.
The close of trading today in Europe brought a new announcement from CEO Luca de Meo, who added that the cancellation of the IPO wouldn’t affect the company’s EV and software strategy.
Renault plans to continue to put money into Ampere until it reaches break-even in 2025. Ampere encompasses all of Renault’s EV businesses, with an EV factory in northern France and about 11,000 employees.
Renault set out financial targets for the unit in November, including more than €10 billion of revenue by 2025, and breaking even in 2025. It targets revenues of €25 billion in 2031, and an operating margin of at least 10% starting in 2030.
Ampere broke off from parent company Renaut in early November, with expected revenues of about €2.8 billion this year. The company has a target of reaching 300,000 EV sales in 2025, up from 45,000 in 2023.
Still, Ampere will offer a total of seven models by 2031: the electric Mégane E-Tech, Scenic, R5 and R4, and the new low-cost Twingo, which should cost less than than 20,000 euros ($22,000). The company is looking for a partner for Twingo in the coming months, with VW in the running.
Ampere will also build EVs for Renault, Alpine, Dacia and Nissan.
Electrek’s Take
Well, this certainly isn’t good news for the brand, that had high hopes for its EV startup. The motivation behind the split was to (no surprise) add value to Renault’s electric business, and particularly to attract Telsa-like valuations while phasing out ICE sales in the coming years. Renault plans to go purely electric by 2030 – and with the French government holding a 15% stake in the company, keeping its high-profile EV business in the country is essential, with the tandem goal of relocating the combustion division outside of France.
EV sales have tapered off in Europe and the US, leaving investors worried about the money flowing. And EVs spinoffs and startups like Ampere and Geely’s Polestar have had some mixed success in trying to compete with Tesla in public markets. Last week, Polestar announced it was cutting 450 jobs while looking for funding. Of course, Tesla’s own price slashing is cutting into its profitability, so it’s not smooth sailing for them either. Renault’s Ampere has some solid models lined up that we’re hoping to take for a spin, so hopefully the company can hang in there and ride out this economic wave.
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