Renault could be one of the best-selling car brands in Australia if it sold the hybrid Renault Koleos, Captur and Clio to take on the Toyota RAV4 Hybrid, Yaris Hybrid and Yaris Cross Hybrid as it does in Europe | Opinion

Renault sales are on the march in Europe, but in Australia they’re going backwards.

In the past nine months, the French automaker's local sales have dropped by 35.6 per cent to just 4197 sales to September, meanwhile it doesn't have a single hybrid vehicle in its line-up.

The picture couldn't look any more different in Europe, where it is currently the second-best hybrid-selling brand in the continent, behind Toyota.

According to Reuters, in the first eight months of 2024, Renault's hybrid sales rose by 55 per cent in Europe, largely off the back of hybrid versions of its Captur and Clio models.

Together they sell alongside hybrid variants of the Arkana, Rafale, Symbioz, Gust, Austral and ESpace models, small to medium-sized SUVs that compete with vehicles like the Nissan Qashqai, Toyota Yaris Cross, Puegeot 3008, Nissan X-Trail and Toyota Kluger.

They are produced with Renault’s E-tech hybrid, a self-developed petrol-electric system that is considered cheaper and more efficient than some key competitors thanks to its utilisation of a ‘dog clutch’.

Unlike regular transmissions, a dog clutch engages and disengages gears without the use of plates, instead compressing together much like a dog’s jaw.

That means it's lighter, requires fewer parts and is able to be built more cost effectively than many of its competitors.

In the UK, for example, the hybrid Toyota Yaris produces about the same level of carbon emissions as the Renault Clio, at 92-96g/km compared to the Clio's 95-97g/km.

The Clio starts at nearly $A10,000 cheaper though, at $A35,730 compared to the Yaris' A$44,000.

But without a hybrid offering in Australia, we don't get the technology on any of Renault's hybrid vehicles, even as local hybrid demand reaches new heights.

To September, hybrid sales in Australia were up by 87 per cent to a record 127,895 sales, with Toyota, the company in charge of Australia’s largest hybrid fleet, the key beneficiary.

That doesn't include plug-in hybrids either, which have grown by 120.5 per cent to 15,546 sales.

Despite Renault introducing its fully-electric Megane E-Tech and Kangoo E-Tech electric vehicles locally, which have so far been a hard-sell, the brand remains resistant to the idea of introducing a hybrid vehicle in the immediate future.

“From a Renault perspective, our internal combustion engines are very clean, very efficient, so we don’t actually need hybrids today,” said Renault’s Australian boss, Glen Sealey, back in September.

“We are in a market where people are looking for value as opposed to looking for aspiration, so to speak. So to add cost into that, which a hybrid drivetrain would do, it’s probably not the right moment.”

The new Renault Arkana SUV has an emissions rating of 133 grams/km, comfortably below the new government-mandated emissions standard of 141 grams/km, set to come into effect on January 1 2025.

It’s also competitively priced, starting at $41,000 before on-road costs, with an even cheaper offering set to arrive imminently.

But the rest of Renault’s core line-up, such as the Captur and best-selling Koleos models – the former of which is sold in Europe in a full-hybrid guise – are on track to breach the impending emissions standard at 149 grams/km and 188 grams/km, respectively.

That would make Renault susceptible to an additional $100 fine for every gram of CO2 over the threshold on every individual car.

Renault has signalled it may introduce hybrid offerings to Australia in the long-term but it remains committed to its local strategy of battery electrification, despite dwindling demand across the industry.

Nationally, electric vehicle sales are up 6.5 per cent compared to this time last year, but their share of the market has dropped to just 7.5 per cent of all new cars sold so far this year.

“Will we need hybrids in our mix come 2027-28? Yes we will, but we will also need much more electrification in our range come 2027-28,” said Sealey.

“So for us full electrification is probably more of a priority than hybrid. That’s not to say we won’t do hybrids, we’ve just, today, got a very efficient engine in that 1.3-litre engine that’s better than some hybrids out there.”

Whether that approach changes as more car brands continue to rethink their electrification plans remains to be seen, but for now, one thing is certain for both car brands and car buyers alike: the more hybrids, the better.