September sales of Renault electrified models enjoyed a headline-grabbing year-on-year uplift of 71% in comparison with last yr underlining how the manufacturer is meeting the UK’s increasing appetite in that space.
Ben Fish joined Renault UK in August 2022 as network operations director and spoke to AM to debate the automobile maker’s priorities over the subsequent 12 months which is able to see the launch of the Scenic E-Tech electric and the all-electric Renault 5 as a part of an ambitious ‘Renaulution’ strategy.
You had some great sales figures for September. What do you attribute that performance to?
It was probably the primary time for the reason that pandemic that we have had the means to deliver such growth and results. So it’s great for us as a brand to indicate what we’re able to and for our network which has been eager to see growth. We achieved 2.5 per cent retail market share yr thus far, with over 3.5 per cent market share within the month, with an 81% growth in passenger cars year-on-year in September. You possibly can imagine from a network standpoint that that additional throughput and due to this fact revenue was really good to see.
How do you explain the British public’s fascination with the Renault Clio – it was September’s fourth best-selling retail automobile within the UK?
We had a selected deal with the Clio within the third quarter. We had been hampered by not having enough Clios for a protracted while so this was good timing for us to get a supply of that model because it was going out.
Clio has been an actual pillar of strength for the Renault brand for many years, especially within the UK. As we’re launching the brand new Clio this month, we had a chance to see the previous version out with a little bit of a bang with some coordinated campaigns across the network and a few really compelling offers for the buyer.
It’s often the case that whenever you’re launching quite a lot of latest models, the present model range doesn’t at all times get much attenion. But this was a very good opportunity to place the main focus back on the Clio and showed just how loved that product is within the UK market. The brand new updated Clio is an exciting evolution in product design, technology, and construct quality. The network is beginning to see a step change within the Renault product story with this latest launch and with what’s attributable to launch over the subsequent 12 months.
What’s the massive wow factor with the brand new Clio E-Tech full hybrid?
The improbable thing is the best way we have been in a position to position that automobile out there with a rather lower headline price than the outgoing model attributable to the evolution when it comes to cost base, technology and design that is gone into it. We have been in a position to put a extremely compelling proposition together for consumers, which is actually necessary in the present market economic environment. So for us to have the opportunity to herald a automobile like that to the market at that price point, I believe is actually exciting.
What’s Renault’s launch plan for 2024?
We have got a bumpy yr in 2024. The massive launch next yr is the brand new fully electric Scenic towards the tip of the primary quarter which can be a large step on when it comes to our battery electric transformation. We have got other launches planned in 2024, including the brand new Rafale which is our D segment Halo product within the second half of next yr – to begin with as a hybrid after which later within the yr, as a plug in hybrid. That may really set the set the tone when it comes to ultimate technology and design. Overall, we can have 12 latest launches over the subsequent yr.
What measures are you putting in on the dealership level to be sure that busy launch plan is a hit?
It is a improbable opportunity, and we have got to be absolutely hand in glove with our dealer network to have the opportunity to bring those products to market and provides all of them the identical level of focus and a spotlight that they deserve. I believe you’d be hard pushed to seek out one other dealer network within the UK that is going to have that volume of latest product in such a brief space of time.
After I joined 18 months ago, Renault was ranked bottom of the NFDA Dealer Attitude Survey and it was clear that we had some work to do. I got here in with a really clear mandate that we wanted to construct a fully solid partnership with our dealer partners if we’ll leverage and achieve all deploying the Renault group’s plans over the subsequent three years.
We have just had the Dealer Attitude Survey results update and we moved as much as seventeenth which is improbable progress. We’re now mid-table which has been achieved through the collaborative strength of our relationship on a day-to-day basis when it comes to our field force and that is really encouraging to see. We also now have a highly successful Dealer Council which enables us to be on point when it comes to the recent topics and pressures.
The interesting thing to see is the quantity of passion and love that continues to be within the network for Renault as a brand. It just needed a bit of bit more of an alignment when it comes to our working culture to understand that we were all going through the identical thing and that working together might be rather more successful than if we’re butting heads.
Are you making any changes to the network?
We announced in May that we’ll be reducing the scale and structure of our dealer network by 2025, with a discount of around 29 sites. We have actually spoken head to head to all of the affected partners over the 4 months since.
I assume what was really necessary to me was firstly that we future-proof our network going forward. One thing we won’t escape are the price pressures that the industry and all OEMs are under. Development of all this latest improbable product is pricey and the deal with being efficient and lean within the face of industry trends for each the OEM and the dealer is actually necessary.
Initially, it was about ensuring that we right-size our network and that we have now the best representation in the best place. We now have a plan to do this and which means we have now to scale back the number of websites.
We’ll reduce from around 140 points of representation on sales to simply over 115 even though it’s necessary to notice that this only reduces our coverage inside a 45-minute drive time by 1% but we’ll still have 96% coverage.
Where do you see growth out there for Renault?
The group could be very committed to creating sure we maintain a supply/demand balance for our brands to achieve success and for our network although whilst we’re seeing supply return in the broader market, we have now to be certain that that what we do is sustainable so we’ll grow where we will grow and where we have now the chance to grow. For me, that is through mainly the brand new models that may come over the subsequent 12-18 months.
Probably the most profitable and sustainable solution to grow a automobile brand for me is to grow with latest models as they are available in relatively than attempting to sweat existing models out there. We’ve to very closely monitor what the market does over the subsequent six to nine months nonetheless since the economy is a bit up and down still and we have now to stay conscious of consumer spending power.
I’m, nonetheless, very confident with the products which can be coming that we’ll proceed to grow the Renault brand. I do think that whenever you see the products which can be coming, they’re incredibly exciting and I believe they can be real head-turners for the consumers within the UK.
This Article First Appeared At www.am-online.com
