International van of the year report 2024 George Barrow
The next generation of of electric vehicles will not be based on ICE models
(£103,000) to pay for gasoline, maintenance and insurance. If you reduce that by 30% it means that the van will be free - that’s the revolution. We’re fighting hard but I think it’s a good example of how the European, truck and logistics industry is moving into attack mode, reinventing itself and playing [as a] collective,” de Meo says. By partnering with Qualcomm and Google as suppliers to create an Android-based electronic architecture for the new vans, de Meo says there is huge scope for additional services to be created, pointing towards the huge engineering base of more than six million developers using Google/Android systems. This, he says, will create horizontal partnership opportunities for a software defined vehicle with an open ecosystem providing many different solutions in different sectors, rather than the traditional vertical model currently employed where manufacturers build something for themselves with a more siloed mindset. “You can do these things yourself, but
we try to partner with the best to solve the problem. By doing that we share the
@whatvan
risk, we have a better quality of capital allocation but we also learn everyday. Why don’t we, as people with 100 years of experience, reinvent ourselves and change the game?” de Meo says. The first vehicles aren’t expected to arrive in the market until 2026, but de Meo already has an eye on numbers and underlined that while all parties involved expect to make money it’s more about reducing costs and emissions for operators. “Commercial vehicles is a very complicated business, but we are still in the position to do volumes. From a price point of view, let’s say this project will be more expensive than a Trafic (medium van) with a diesel engine. The key thing is not the price list but the business plan we are providing to the customer with the total cost of ownership that is 20 to 30% lower than a conventional project. That’s where we can be really radical,” he says.
The vans are expected to be sold under the Renault and Renault Trucks umbrellas, but may not use the Flexis name which de Meo reiterates is presently just the name for the legal
entity of the joint venture. It is likely that the final product will also not be exclusively for the two Renault brands. “We are in discussion with Nissan, they already take Kangoo, Trafic and Master and we will maybe take advantage of that. The idea is that we will for sure have vans that are white label,” de Meo explains.
With backing from such a large logistics firm like CMA CGM from the beginning – CMA CGM will take a 10% shareholding - the rest being split equally between Renault Group and Volvo Group – operators appear to be at the heart of the new vans while all parties also have a clear mandate to reduce emissions.
“This initiative will allow us as a logicistcs company to utilise about 1,500 utility trucks that will be able to go around cities without emitting any CO2 emissions – that will be quite remarkable,” explains Rodolphe Saadé, chairman and CEO of CMA CGM. While giant logistics firms like Amazon have backed start-up projects, like Arrival, in the past, the collective strengths of these three partners
seems greater and their mission more defined. From improving driver welfare, employee productivity and vehicle utilisation through to decarbonisation and sustainability, the focus already seems razor sharp.
Although the success of any new product launch will ultimately be defined by sales, it feels like this venture is as much about kickstarting change, generating competition and fostering innovation in hardware and software, as much as it is about vans. “Decarbonisation is everything, the climate cannot wait,” Lundstedt says. “Covid made it clear that we cannot be without very professional logistics, and logistics will continue to increase in volume because of the megatrends towards urbanisation, e-commerce, and growing populations, but it must be considerably more sustainable,” he adds. With the global reach of Renault Group and Volvo Group extending to almost every country on the planet, perhaps horizontal partnerships really will be the way forward to ensure vans of the future are integrated and aligned to our needs and our goals.
May 2024 WhatVan? 23
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53
