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By Tim Kelly and Gilles Guillaume
TOKYO/PARIS (Reuters) -Renault and Nissan will work more closely together to make electric cars, they said on Thursday, as they detailed a $26 billion investment plan over the next five years to stay competitive in the switch to cleaner driving.
The two-decade old alliance, which also includes Mitsubishi Motors, said it would increase the number of common platforms for electric vehicles (EV) to five from four.
They will build a combined EV line-up of 35 vehicles by 2030, the companies said, adding that by 2026 four fifths of their models would share common platforms, up from 60% now.
Rocked by the 2018 ouster of alliance founder and chairman Carlos Ghosn amid a financial scandal, the companies have pledged to strengthen their ties by pooling more resources.
"The alliance will hold its place among the world automotive leaders," Alliance Operating Board Chairman, Jean-Dominique Senard, said during an online presentation.
But it faces competition from bigger carmakers with deeper pockets, such as Toyota Motor, which in December pledged to spend $70 billion https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/toyota-says-have-30-battery-electric-line-up-vehicles-by-2030-2021-12-14 to electrify its fleet, as well as EV specialists such as Tesla Inc.
Now the world's most valuable automaker, Tesla forecast on Wednesday its deliveries in 2022 would grow 50% https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/tesla-beats-revenue-estimates-record-deliveries-2022-01-26 year on year.
Asked whether the EV spending plan was enough, given it is only around half https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/volkswagen-board-provide-details-ceos-future-powers-source-2021-12-09 what Germany's Volkswagen AG plans to invest in the technology, Renault Chief Financial Officer Clotilde Delbos said it was "sufficient," given the alliance's past experience in making EVs.
"We are not a second division player when we come together," Renault CEO Luca de Meo said during the presentation.
SCALE
To power the new EVs, the partners said they planned to secure 220 gigawatt (GWh) hours of battery production capacity by 2030, providing greater scale that would allow them to halve battery costs by 2026 and reduce them by 65% by 2028. They did not give details on how the capacity would be secured.
The money promised on Thursday comes from funding announced last year.
In June, Renault unveiled a five-year 10 billion euro EV strategy https://www.reuters.com/business/sustainable-business/renault-raises-targets-share-electric-vehicles-2021-06-30 with a plan to launch 10 models and to have EVs account for 90% of all models by 2030.