Coronavirus: Renault CEO to unveil eight year turnaround plan in 2021

Carmaker Renault’s (RNO.PA) CEO Luca de Meo said the company will debut an eight-year plan in 2021.

The exec told Spanish newspaper El Pais that “the next two years will be tough,” and that the auto giant has an eight-year plan that will be announced in January.

“We can turn it all around,” he said, but did not give any specific detail on the plan.

This follows the company’s partial draw down of a €5bn ($5.9bn, £4.5bn) state-backed loan. The money was put in place earlier this year to shore up finances amid the coronavirus crisis, chairman Jean-Dominique Senard said.

At the time, the chairman did not say how much of the loan has been tapped, but said the group has ample liquidity.

Senard said at an event on Thursday: "There will not be a single euro of public money used for Renault, I'm stating this clearly, unless the world collapses."

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Renault announced at the end of May that it would cut 14,600 jobs worldwide and reduce its production capacity as part of a plan aimed to create cost savings of €2bn in the next three years.

De Meo had flagged that Renault might have to dig deeper than the of cost cuts it has already outlined to get back on its feet. It saw a sustained downturn in earnings since 2018.

The company, already hit by falling sales before coronavirus caused shutdowns and a collapse in consumer demand, said in a statement that 4,600 of the job cuts would take place in France, and 10,000 in the rest of the world.

At the time, the company, which employs about 180,000 people globally, also said it would reduce production from 4 million to 3.3 million vehicles by 2024, and focus on its more profitable models.

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