Renault Australia has just added a third electric vehicle (EV) to its current offering, but its boss says Australia’s electric vehicle market share will need to grow significantly before the brand launches an all-electric attack.
The Scenic E-Tech is the fourth Renault electric vehicle ever sold in Australia, following the Zoe, Kangoo E-Tech and Megane E-Tech. But despite several other new electric vehicles launching overseas, Renault Australia general manager Glen Sealey says the local market is not yet ready.
“We’re looking at the Renault 4, we’re looking at the Renault 5, there’s the Twingo in there, there’s a whole range of Renault electric cars coming onto the market,” he told the media at the local launch of the Scenic E-Tech.
“But we have three (EVs) on the market for a market size of 1.2 million, less than 10 percent of which are electric; we would need to see that significant change before we bring more cars to market.”
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“With the models we have in play, that’s enough for a market of our size given the penetration of electrification. If we were talking about 40 percent of the market being electric vehicles, that’s a completely different discussion because there are economies of scale.”
In 2025, electric vehicles accounted for just 8.3 percent of the 1,241,037 vehicles sold, down from 7.4 percent in 2024.
Renault only delivered 4,569 vehicles with different powertrains in Australia, while Tesla, for example, sold 28,856 units with just two pure electric vehicle models.
Renault’s overseas electric vehicle catalog includes the Twingo E-Tech, Renault 4 E-Tech and Renault 5 E-Tech, the latter being Europe’s best-selling small car electric vehicle in 2025. However, Mr Sealey outlined that some Australian safety regulations also prevent local sales of these models.
In any case, Renault electric vehicles like the Scenic E-Tech (priced from $55,990 before on-road costs) will become increasingly important in the coming years as Australia’s New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES) penalizes manufacturers for exceeding increasingly stringent CO2 emissions targets.
While Renault was one of several brands to hit the first fleet-wide CO2 target, avoiding penalties for now, the company’s reluctance to introduce additional electric vehicles could be offset by the introduction of new-generation hybrid vehicles such as the Symbioz small SUV. It’s possible that the Symbioz will replace the Captur locally.
“You have to look at the fuel or powertrain mix and Renault has some great hybrid vehicles which we will be bringing into the country in a series of six (new or refreshed) cars over the next six months,” Mr Sealey said.
“If the trend (demand for electric vehicles) continues to go up, you continue to evaluate it and then bring it in. There’s no definitive point where we say, ‘Okay, that’s it, let’s go’.”
“There would be a definite point where we say, ‘Okay, can the (manufacturer) make money, does it work for the dealers and does it work for the customer base?’ Those are the three ingredients that have to work.”
Still, it’s clear that Renault’s global electrification efforts show no signs of slowing down. Renault recently unveiled the Filante, a South Korean-built hybrid SUV that shares underpinnings with various Geely models, while a new Trafic E-Tech van was unveiled in late 2025.
Ampere, Renault’s independently run electric vehicle division, will reportedly be reintegrated into the French brand by July 2026. This will streamline the development and manufacturing processes for Renault’s electric vehicles and potentially those of alliance partners Mitsubishi and Nissan.
Most recently, Renault’s next-generation electric cars, based on the latest EV platform RGEV Medium 2.0, were unveiled with the R-Space Lab concept.
This EV architecture is expected to support two all-electric configurations (one with up to 750 km WLTP range) and an extended range electric vehicle (EREV) version that offers a total range of up to 1400 km.
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