Renault supports UK's 2030 petrol and diesel sales ban

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1 min read

27 January 2021

Renault boss Luca de Meo has backed the UK government’s plan to ban the sale of new combustion-engined cars from 2030 and has revealed an ambition to support it early on by launching products from the company’s newly announced EV range.

“It was clearly a pretty bold statement,” he said. “It’s likely that these changes in electrification technology would not have come so fast without the pressure. We are thinking of pushing the envelope [in the UK] because we will have the right products.”

Confirming that both the new Renault 5 and the three newly announced Alpine products will come to the UK, de Meo said he understood that the UK government’s bold move was an attempt to “position the country in a better place on the starting grid. We will do our best to live up to that and see if we are good enough”.

De Meo's backing of the UK's 2030 ban contrasts with comments made recently by the boss of Stellantis (the company formed by the merger of FCA and PSA), Carlos Tavares. He called the UK's proposed ban "brutal" and suggested that Vauxhall's Ellesmere Port factory is under review as a result.

Opinion: youthful confidence - that's de Meo's secret

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Steve Cropley

Title: Editor-in-chief

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Adrian Barlow 28 January 2021

There is a good case to be made for banning ICE vehicles from operating in city centres, (except for hybrids) but to ban the sale of new pure petrol and diesel engined-vehicles from 2030 is an example of government insanity where technically illiterate Muppets have no grasp of real science or technology.