Renault: 50 innovations to make cars clean

The numbers add up. Renault has undertaken the task of decarbonizing a car, that is, reducing its CO2 _emissions by 90% over its entire life cycle, from cradle to grave, compared to a 2019 vehicle traveling 200,000 km over a period of fifteen years. With a few additions and a multitude of subtractions, the French manufacturer is showing the way forward to achieve carbon neutrality worldwide by 2050 and by 2040 for its European operations. For the Ampère structure dedicated to electric vehicles, it is even targeting a 2035 deadline.

Launched in 2019, this project is based on fifty innovations, some of which have led to patent applications. The exercise is akin to a dress rehearsal before moving into the zero-carbon era. Its ambition was to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by tenfold, taking as a benchmark a Captur that emits 50 tons of _CO2 over the entire cycle. "The challenge was to reduce the footprint…