In January, Renault CEO Luca de Meo revealed plans for global expansion, with sub-brand Alpine given the role of flagging in North America and China. As emerging brands have recently discovered, servicing a car without an easily accessible network is not only difficult, but a costly affliction. Tesla has been working on it for 10 years, but Tesla owners still face a certain set of challenges. AutoNation may have opened the front doors for De Meo as he searched for the best way into the US market. car news report The Renault chief is in talks with AutoNation CEO Mike Manley (formerly Fiat Chrysler’s top dog) about bringing the Alpine into the showroom.
All this is preliminary. Renault is approaching it from several angles and AutoNation is one of them. Some draws to go with Fort. The Lauderdale, Fla.-based dealer group is the #1 selling dealer group in the United States since 1997, a year after his founding, and he is 27 years old. It means that it is established in In 2022, AutoNation sold 229,971 new carsdown from 262,403 new vehicles in 2021, handing over the company’s longtime lead spot to the Lithia Motors dealer group.
AutoNation sells almost everything from Bentley to Nissan, but not Porsche, Polestar or Lotus. The Alpine A110 sports coupe fills the empty segment space on the showroom floor, and Alpine’s electric crossovers needn’t fight for attention among competitors and Alpine partners. Renault already has a joint venture with Polestar owner Geely for the development of ICE and electrified ICE powertrains, and may work with Geely on a platform for CUVs, the successor to the electric Alpine A110. It is rumored to come out of a partnership with Lotus. The smaller Alpine crossover for the US is about the same size as the Porsche Macan, and the larger one is the Porsche Cayenne, about the same size as his coupe.
If anything comes out of the discussion, AutoNation could start as a digital front for ordering Alpines and be able to service the cars they sell. Renault has a lot to figure out about its expansion in North America, but with A110 sales low and the crossover not launching until his 2028, there’s time.
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