You are here at the Renault Nissan stand where we are exhibiting various electric vehicles.
The challenge today in Brazil is for the government to introduce incentives to market electric vehicles,
since currently electric vehicles – for a number of reasons unrelated to electric technology –
are taxed at 80% if they are imported. So it is simply not economically viable.
Currently, electric vehicles cannot be sold in Brazil
and we are here at Rio+20, and have been here for several weeks,
to try to significantly raise awareness among the authorities and associations
so that incentive programs can be set up,
so that electric vehicles can have a real future in Brazil.
I think that something will happen in the medium term, since we are certainly being listened to.
We have been listened to for several weeks leading up to Rio+20
and the door is open to this question
I cannot say much more at this stage, but we are being listened to clearly,
and all parties are well aware that it is everyone’s responsibility
to allow the entry of electric vehicles and that that can only happen if
there is a more favorable context in terms of taxes.
There is genuine interest.
Brazilians are very keen on innovation, very open to the world
and very open to new technologies.
There is genuine curiosity and a real empathy towards this technology,
which is totally emissions-free and really does protect the environment
in a country where vegetation is enormously valuable.
So today, in order to support market growth on the one hand
and our market share on the other, we need to increase our capacity.
We are therefore increasing capacity from 220,000 to 320,000 cars
- by 100,000 – and we will carry out work at the end of the year to begin next year
with a completely redesigned plant, capable of producing these 300,000 cars,
and a plant totally integrated into the environment,
since it is a plant located on a site 60% of which is a protected forest
so we have dozens of protected plant and animal species.
There is therefore a good balance between the industrial aspect and the vegetation aspect,
in line with our presence today at Rio+20.
In conclusion, environmental protection is really something in Renault’s DNA,
as we don’t miss an opportunity to demonstrate.
