Electric vehicles are the present, and the future of this industry, and Renault-Nissan is ready to push forward.

The automotive world hasn’t kept any secrets as to what the future is. This group is made of three partners, Renault, Nissan, and Mitsubishi Motors, which will come together in a joint investment venture into the next five years. The goal is to create a common automotive electronic architecture that will become the basis for the EV models that will come from these three brands. Let’s take a look at how this will be accomplished.

A Hefty Investment into Research and Development

The three brands will combine their investment into electric vehicles over the next five years. This investment will reach $26 billion and be used to develop the architecture needed and the right platform for many of the future EV models to share. This investment is more than double what these three organizations have already invested in the electric vehicle market, which totals nearly $11 billion so far. If anyone thinks this trio isn’t serious about the future of the auto market, this substantial investment should tell a different story.

Aggressive Development of Electric Vehicles

We know how much is being invested, and we know it’s going to be over the course of the next five years, but how many vehicles are expected to be part of this push forward? The Renault-Nissan group has announced they will jointly launch 35 new EVs over the next five years. That is a huge number that could change the look of the entire lineup from all three brands. In addition to the number of EVs being launched, these partners are working toward a common strategy of battery production in an effort to reach 220 GWh production capacity by 2030.

Commonality Could be the Future

With these three automakers working together to create a common architecture, they will also work toward a common centralized electrical and electronic platform, which will allow Renault to bring its first “full software defined vehicle” to the market by 2025. This new push and investment will allow all three brands to use this new platform to underpin close to 80 percent of their vehicles, which is an increase from sixty percent that was the original goal. This new goal should be reached by 2026. Combined, these three brands have nearly 90 vehicles that wear their respective badges.

Coming Out of the Shadows and Into the Light

Not long ago, Mitsubishi was in hot water with fuel mileage numbers that were falsified, and Nissan experienced embarrassment when former chairman Carlos Ghosn was arrested on charges of financial misconduct. This collaboration into the electric vehicle world will allow these three brands to move in a positive direction and leave these negatives behind them. As each brand leader announced their goals recently, the message was one of unity and collaboration, which could serve all three companies well into the future. Does this mean the future of EV driving belongs to Renault-Nissan?

The Plan is for Multiple Platforms

It would seem a bit naïve to think that 35 electric vehicles could share one platform across three brand names, which is not what’s going to take place. Instead of one single platform to serve all of the EV needs, there will be five common platforms developed to underpin models from these three brands. The goal is to have all five in place over the next five years, with more than 90 percent of the new EV models sharing these platforms to give us the future of electric driving.

Not the First Shared Platforms

The Renault-Nissan Alliance has already experimented with a shared EV platform to see how it would work and if each vehicle could maintain its brand personality while using a common platform. The CMF-EV architecture is used for the Nissan Ariya crossover and the Renault Megane E-Tech. These two models certainly maintain their brand personality well and offer us excellent EV driving qualities at the same time.

A less commonly known shared platform is one between Mitsubishi and Nissan for their minicars. These cars are offered in Japan and are called “kei” cars. With this type of car, the platform used is aptly named the KEI-EV platform.

Adding Three More Platforms to the Mix

As you can see, this alliance has two platforms they already use. This means only three more are needed to ensure the three brands can have five EV platforms to share and use for vehicles that we see offered with the various names on them. In addition to the CMF-EV and KEI-EV platforms, the Renault-Nissan Alliance will create the CMF-AEV platform for affordable small vehicles, the LCV-EV platform for commercial vehicles, and the CMF-BEVplatform for compact EV models.

Using the CMF-EV Platform for Success

The most commonly used platform of the group will be the CMF-EV platform. This will be the one that will underpin more than 1.5 million vehicles per year starting in 2030. Across five brands from these three automakers, this platform will be used for fifteen different models. That’s a huge chunk of the 35 new EV models that are planned as part of this development.

Battery Development for the Future

As mentioned, this alliance will also focus on developing solid-state batteries and electronics for the future. The development of these batteries could lead to much longer driving ranges, shorter recharging times, and a greater desire to drive electric vehicles in the future.

With this strong investment and collaboration, the Renault-Nissan Alliance expects to become the brands that are looked to for EV driving in the future. Don’t forget; the Nissan Leaf has been the most popular EV in the world for many years. If this success is the basis for future success, it will be easy to see how these automakers can combine their efforts to be the names we trust when it comes to electric vehicle driving.

The future is in the development of EVs and it seems this group has a significant head start in this arena.