German Press says Volkswagen and Renault in talks to jointly develop £17,000 electric car

According to the German Press, Volkswagen and Renault are in talks to jointly develop a small electric car selling for £17.000.

Legislation is forcing car makers down the electric car road at an indecent pace, throwing away a century or more of ICE development to reduce CO2 emissions.

But consigning profitable ICE models to the bin and trying to build EVs down to a price is a major problem which could well see European carmakers struggling to come up with a solution, particularly in the face of (subsidised) Chinese EVs.

The solution – or at least a way to mitigate development costs – is to share new car development across different car makers, something we’re already seeing with Ford using VW ID underpinnings for two of its new EVs. Of course, you then end up with cars like white goods – different label, same product.

The latest quest to partner up to build EVs looks to be going on with VW and Renault in talks to produce the elusive £17k electric city car, according to Autonews citing a report from German business newspaper Handelsblatt.

The plan, it seems, is to build up to 250,000 EVs a year, and perhaps means that the 2026 Renault Twingo – already touted as a £17k EV, and VW’s stated intent to do the same with an ID.1 could see both cars stemming from a joint venture.

There’s going to be more of this to come.