Renault held talks this week with China’s Li Auto and Xiaomi on electrical and clever car applied sciences, the French carmaker stated on Friday, opening the door to potential collaboration on expertise with the 2 corporations.
“Our CEO Luca de Meo engaged in pivotal conversations with business leaders, together with our companions Geely and Dongfeng, key suppliers but additionally the brand new gamers just like the founders of Li Auto and Xiaomi Expertise,” Renault’s procurement and partnerships chief Francois Provost stated in a put up on LinkedIn.
The talks on the Beijing Autoshow come amid an more and more tense relationship between Europe and China, with the European Fee launching a sequence of probes into Chinese language exports.
Amongst them, it’s investigating whether or not the rise in gross sales of Chinese language EVs on the continent is because of unfair subsidies. China disputes the declare and has accused Europe of protectionism.
De Meo has stated Europe faces a tough balancing act to each shield its market and be taught from Chinese language automobile producers, that are far forward in improvement of EVs and their software program.
Renault already companions with China’s Geely in thermal and hybrid powertrains, and collaborates with tech corporations Google and Qualcomm in sensible cockpits.